Local stocks ummed and ahhed, before finishing higher on Friday in a relatively cruisy session following some more fireworks on Wall Street overnight.
Social media giant Meta got crushed after flagging its first ever decline in user growth, before Amazon came to the party with a big after-hours rally after upping the cost of its Prime subscription.
Also upping things was the RBA, which upped its forecast for trimmed-mean inflation to 2.75% for year-end 2022, with a June peak of 3.25%.
The bank’s closely watched Statement on Monetary Policy also included further declines in unemployment, but more modest gains for wage growth.
The ASX opened higher then fell into the red, before getting back on the horse in afternoon trade.
Microcaps outpaced the big end of town as the Emerging Companies index rose by ~0.5%.
TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS
(Stocks highlighted in yellow rose after making announcements during the trading day).
Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.
Code Company Price % Volume NPM Newpeak Metals 0.0015 50.0% 250,000 CNB Carnaby Resource Ltd 2.03 49.3% 12,484,576 AUQ Alara Resources Ltd 0.088 49.2% 10,596,421 MSI Multistack Internat. 0.058 48.7% 452,759 DCX Discovex Res Ltd 0.014 40.0% 97,628,064 BAS Bass Oil Ltd 0.002 33.3% 985,545 VMG VDM Group Limited 0.002 33.3% 253,504 CPM Coopermetalslimited 0.465 27.4% 1,645,900 FNT Frontier Resources 0.031 24.0% 75,692,585 BRX Belararoxlimited 0.31 24.0% 1,128,999 SIS Simble Solutions 0.022 22.2% 2,995,285 MOB Mobilicom Ltd 0.05 22.0% 180,000 IVZ Invictus Energy Ltd 0.14 21.7% 5,222,915 CDT Castle Minerals 0.064 20.8% 38,869,582 OMX Orange Minerals 0.18 20.0% 132,106 LCT Living Cell Tech. 0.006 20.0% 9,116 VPR Volt Power Group 0.003 20.0% 84,222,153 PCL Pancontinental Energ 0.0035 16.7% 43,864,981 RNX Renegade Exploration 0.007 16.7% 1,103,723 T3D 333D Limited 0.0035 16.7% 103,971 VKA Viking Mines Ltd 0.014 16.7% 1,735,358 CAE Cannindah Resources 0.325 16.1% 2,320,091 WRK Wrkr Ltd 0.022 15.8% 2,497,038 ICG Inca Minerals Ltd 0.105 15.4% 905,120 THR Thor Mining PLC 0.015 15.4% 52,680,465
It was all systems go for Carnaby Resources (ASX:CNB), which along with its joint venture partner Discovex Resources (ASX:DCX) said it’s confirmed a serious copper hit at the ‘Nil Desperandum’ prospect, part of the ‘Greater Duchess’ copper-gold project in Queensland.
The pair’s latest drill program pulled up additional copper mineralisation with a similar ‘true width’ to another drill program in December. Here’s why that’s important.
Among stocks with news, both companies easily led the market on Thursday with gains of +40%.
Mobile communications equipment company Mobilicom (ASX:MOB) jumped by around 20% on no news, while $75m rare earths player Frontier Resources (ASX:FNT) rose strongly after announcing the appointment of mining industry veteran David Frances as non-executive chairman.
TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS
(Stocks highlighted in yellow fell after making announcements during the trading day).
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Code Company Price % Volume WOO Wooboard Tech Ltd 0.0015 -25% 593,425 SRN Surefire Rescs NL 0.012 -20% 16,937,189 CCE Carnegie Cln Energy 0.002 -20% 1,000,000 AIQ Alternative Invest 0.095 -17% 8,000 KLR Kaili Resources Ltd 0.025 -17% 85,806 NCL Netccentric Ltd 0.1 -17% 84,031 BIR BIR Financial Ltd 0.029 -15% 641,730 SHH Shree Minerals Ltd 0.018 -14% 44,383,781 ARE Argonaut Resources 0.003 -14% 1,330,000 AYM Australia United Min 0.006 -14% 1,446,980 CT1 Constellation Tech 0.006 -14% 13,740 HFY Hubify Ltd 0.056 -14% 280,000 HCD Hydrocarbon Dynamic 0.013 -13% 1,008,540 ICN Icon Energy Limited 0.013 -13% 251,145 AO1 Assetowl Limited 0.0035 -13% 879,589 AXP AXP Energy Ltd 0.007 -13% 23,938,834 ROG Red Sky Energy. 0.007 -13% 4,298,431 TSC Twenty Seven Co. Ltd 0.0035 -13% 36,048,212 ASQ Australian Silica 0.12 -11% 456,084 JXT Jaxstaltd 0.04 -11% 653,398 FFT Future First Tech 0.032 -11% 4,890 MXO Motio Ltd 0.075 -11% 8,777 BMR Ballymore Resources 0.17 -11% 118,670 IEC Intra Energy Corp 0.017 -11% 204,216 FTZ Fertoz Ltd 0.22 -10% 319,018
ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
Mining heavy equipment rental company Emeco Holdings (ASX:EHL)has formally appointed Thao Pham as chief financial officer, after acting in the role since September 2021.
Chairman Peter Richards said Thao had been instrumental in Emeco’s debt restructuring in FY21 and would continue to provide strong financial leadership to the company.
New Zealand Oil & Gas subsidiary Cue Energy Resources (ASX:CUE) has announced that its oil production well in Mahato PSC, Indonesia has been successfully drilled.
The well is producing an average of ~600 barrels or oil per day. Cue has a 12.5% interest in the Mahato PSC. New Zealand Oil & Gas has a 50.4% interest in Cue.
And BBX Minerals (ASX:BBX) has announced its in the final stages of assaying its first completed RC drill hole in its 2017 program at Três Estados in Brazil using an alternative nickel extraction method.
Although BBX has been working on the method for more than a year and achieved consistent results, the assay process was temporarily put on hold due to challenges in achieving the required furnace temperatures of 1450° to 1500°.
However, the issue has been resolved through a furnace upgrade that is continuously able to achieve temperatures of 1600°.
TRADING HALTS
The following stocks went into halts on Friday and are expected out in the coming days.
Balkan Mining & Minerals (ASX:BMM) — acquisition
Nimy Resources (ASX:NIM) — exploration update (Mons nickel project)
PlaySide Studios (ASX:PLY) — Beans Web 3.0 NFT launch
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