It has been a quiet enough day in terms of news around the market… and in the absence of salacious headlines to pick apart, and in acknowledgment of the fact that I just want to go home as quickly as possible, because I – like everyone else in Sydney – have been kneecapped by bird flu or whatever it is that’s slowly killing us all.
So – here’s the ultra-fast, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Closing Bell.
Iron ore prices climbed handily, and that has helped Aussie miners phone in a solid performance throughout the day, helping to lead the broader market higher and push the ASX 200 benchmark above 1.1% this afternoon.
Mining stocks rose as much as 2.7% on the rising ore prices, which have been attributed to iron hitting a one-month high, after the market started seeing increased short-term demand and vague rumblings of an increase in activity in the always-important Chinese market.
A quick look at the sectors tells part of the story:
Chart via Marketindex.com.au
And a look at the ASX indices tells the rest:
Chart via Marketindex.com.au
The only Debbie Downers on the market were, to a small extent, our tech stocks, which retreated from early gains to end the day lower.
And the Utilities sector started the day poorly and never really recovered, closing out a fairly miserable session down 1.11%.
The dip there was largely attributable to some of the big names underperforming today, with Large Cappers like Origin Energy (ASX:ORG) and AGL Energy (ASX:AGL) falling more than 1.2% apiece.
Mercury NZ, which started the day a long way behind the 8 ball rallied hard through the afternoon and undid a lot of the damage, to be at dead flat by the close of play.
Aside from that, the only significant news was the release of the ABS balance of payments data today, which said:
“The current account balance (seasonally adjusted, current price) for March quarter 2024 was a deficit of $4.9b. This was a decrease of $7.6b from the revised December quarter 2023 current account surplus of $2.7b.
The current account deficit for March quarter 2024 reflects a smaller trade surplus on the balance of goods and services, while the net primary income deficit increased.”
The report went on to note that terms of trade increased 0.2% to 94.9, up from 94.7 in December quarter 2023, while the net primary income deficit increased to $22.3b, following the $20.8b deficit in December quarter 2023.
I’m just going to nod sagely, stroke my beard and pretend I know what all that means.
ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
Code Company Price % Change Volume Market Cap JTL Jayex Technology Ltd 0.002 100.0 508,877 $281,279 MHC Manhattan Corp Ltd 0.002 33.3 376,000 $4,405,470 HCD Hydrocarbon Dynamic 0.003 50.0 1,484,403 $1,617,165 RDS Redstone Resources 0.006 50.0 19,143,349 $3,701,514 PNT Panthermetalsltd 0.032 39.1 56,000 $2,004,822 EOF Ecofibre Limited 0.033 37.5 859,170 $9,092,974 HXG Hexagon Energy 0.015 36.4 142,000 $5,642,075 EDE Eden Inv Ltd 0.002 33.3 1,047,484 $5,517,407 INP Incentiapay Ltd 0.004 33.3 100,000 $3,731,790 NGS NGS Ltd 0.004 33.3 2,843,401 $753,682 RLG Roolife Group Ltd 0.004 33.3 222,000 $2,347,145 AS2 Askarimetalslimited 0.052 30.0 1,485,707 $3,907,636 OLY Olympio Metals Ltd 0.049 28.9 238,543 $3,248,106 AL8 Alderan Resource Ltd 0.0045 28.6 6,065,557 $3,874,015 AEV Avenira Limited 0.005 25.0 2,710,105 $9,396,136 ALR Altairminerals 0.005 25.0 3,972,889 $17,186,310 BYH Bryah Resources Ltd 0.005 25.0 20,000 $2,013,147 HLX Helix Resources 0.0025 25.0 1,229,336 $6,528,387 LCL LCL Resources Ltd 0.01 25.0 815,836 $7,719,024 MCL Mighty Craft Ltd 0.005 25.0 828,200 $1,475,637 AL3 Aml3D 0.1675 24.1 35,461,102 $50,908,369
Today was an odd one for the companies on the winner’s list, as most of them were moving along with the market, without a specific announcement or news to pin it on – but there are a few worth mentioning for the session.
Askari Metals (ASX:AS2) announced that is has defined a significant JORC (2012) Exploration Target at the 100%-owned Burracoppin Gold Project in WA, measuring in at 8.212Mt to 11.121Mt at an average grade of between 0.67g/t Au and 0.91g/t Au for 176,000oz Au to 323,000oz Au, using a cut-off grade of 0.3g/t Au.
Ecofibre (ASX:EOF) announced the appointment of Ulrich (Uli) Tombuelt as Managing Director and CEO of Ecofibre and President of Ecofibre Advanced Technologies, effective by 05 August, 2024.
Hexagon Energy Materials (ASX:HXG) saw a boost on Thursday after delivering an investor briefing on its low emissions ammonia project, highlighting the current push by the Japanese government to invest in the technology.
Rincon Resources (ASX:RCR) continued to perform well off the back of Wednesday’s news that the company has obtained heritage clearance for drilling at its Avalon, Sheoak, K1, and K2 targets, within the West Arunta Project in Western Australia.
AML3D (ASX:AL3) was also up on old news – the company announced a juicy defence contract on Tuesday, worth $1.1 million, courtesy of the US Navy.
Waratah Minerals (ASX:WTM) was still performing well today on yesterday’s news about fresh results from a further six drill holes from the on-going RC drill program at the company’s Spur gold-copper project, with the highlight result coming in at 89m at 1.73g/t Au, 0.08% Cu from 115m inc. 57m at 2.50g/t Au, 0.11% Cu from 115m.
Avenira (ASX:AEV) was rising this morning, but the only recent news of note was the resignation of two directors, Mr Kevin Dundo and Ms Winnie Lai Hadad, who stepped down from the Board of Directors on 2 July 2024.
Similarly, Marley Spoon’s (ASX:MMM) news today was the result of a resignation as well, after CEO and Management Board Chairman Fabian Siegel departed on 26 June – by mutual agreement – after 10 years at the helm of the company.
ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS
Here are the least best performing ASX small cap stocks:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
Code Company Price % Change Volume Market Cap ECG Ecargo Hldg 0.007 -63 4,074,392 $11,689,750 EQS Equitystorygroupltd 0.015 -35 143,000 $2,506,850 RML Resolution Minerals 0.002 -33 2,706,096 $4,830,065 SIS Simble Solutions 0.002 -33 238,114 $2,260,352 LAT Latitude 66 Limited 0.145 -28 1,434,615 $28,523,215 NVQ Noviqtech Limited 0.031 -26 62,922 $6,322,876 1TT Thrive Tribe Tech 0.003 -25 10,807,367 $1,882,486 JAV Javelin Minerals Ltd 0.0015 -25 260,960 $5,002,462 ME1 Melodiol Glb Health 0.003 -25 15,693,087 $921,849 MTB Mount Burgess Mining 0.0015 -25 50,000 $2,596,294 ODE Odessa Minerals Ltd 0.003 -25 10,891,049 $4,173,130 TMX Terrain Minerals 0.003 -25 5,439,385 $5,726,683 VML Vital Metals Limited 0.003 -25 12,838,520 $23,580,268 VPR Voltgroupltd 0.0015 -25 1,446,824 $21,432,416 IVX Invion Ltd 0.004 -20 125,000 $33,022,661 MCT Metalicity Limited 0.002 -20 6,756,483 $11,214,632 CZN Corazon Ltd 0.005 -17 251,032 $4,007,434 WML Woomera Mining Ltd 0.0025 -17 6,147,391 $3,654,417 ODA Orcoda Limited 0.13 -16 25,424 $26,219,346 FBM Future Battery 0.032 -16 997,050 $25,166,485
TRADING HALTS
BluGlass (ASX:BLG) – pending clarification in relation to an earlier announcement.
Green Critical Minerals (ASX:GCM) – pending an announcement in relation to a capital raising.
Power Minerals (ASX:PNN) – pending an announcement in relation to a capital raise.
Linius Technologies (ASX:LNU) – pending an announcement in relation to a capital raise.
Larvotto Resources (ASX:LRV) – pending an announcement in relation to a capital raising.
West Cobar Metals (ASX:WC1) – pending an announcement regarding drilling results at the company’s Salazar Project.
ICYMI – PM EDITION
Lumos Diagnostics (ASX:LDX) announced it will commence distribution of its FebriDx rapid point-of-care (POC) test to differentiate a viral from bacterial acute respiratory infection in Australia and New Zealand.
The company claims that its FebriDx test provides results after 10 minutes from a fingerstick blood test and can be used to help rapidly and accurately manage infectious patients in primary care, emergency Departments, paediatric and other outpatient settings.
LDX has extended its global distribution to Regional Health Care Group (RHCG), a Nasdaq-listed Henry Schein company in Australia and New Zealand, for its FebriDx POC test. Henry Schein already distributes FebriX to Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK and US.
Adavale Resources (ASX:ADD) has completed the acquisition of a strategically significant uranium tenement, comprising two areas adjacent to and east of both the company’s existing Mundowdna South and Lake Surprise projects.
Airtasker (ASX:ART) has raised $5m in media capital from Australian broadcast and on-demand audio company, ARN Media (ASX:A1N), to scale brand awareness and turbocharge growth in Australia.
3D interpretation of Belararox’s (ASX:BRX) rock chip and talus sampling assay results and geological mapping have provided further evidence that a second significant prophyry target is present about 700m below its Toro-Malambo-Tambo project in Argentina.
The assaying had outlined a large 600m by 450m molybdenum anomaly (>6ppm) with top surface assays of 5642 ppm copper, 0.26 ppm gold, 44 ppm silver, 86 ppm molybdenum, 355 ppm zinc and 2330 ppm lead.
This adds another top priority drill target to the existing Malambo porphyry and Toro epithermal targets.
The Calmer Co International’s (ASX:CCO) e-commerce sales have increased to $555,000 in June, up from $496,000 in May. It comes after the company raised $2m through an oversubscribed renounceable rights issue and is raising a further $880,000 via a follow-on placement.
Geological analysis work by Equinox Resources (ASX:EQN) over its Campo Grande REE project in Brazil has identified three additional target areas ahead of the next exploration campaign, which will see drilling at the Jaguaquara and Jitauna prospects.
Resource drilling at Everest Metals Corporation’s (ASX:EMC) Mt Edon project in WA has uncovered high-grade rubidium and lithium, up to 0.54% and 1% respectively. This backs the company’s claim that the project has one of the highest grades of rubidium mineralisation in the world.
Firetail Resources (ASX:FTL) appointed veteran exploration and mining geologist Glenn Poole as its chief executive officer to accelerate exploration and development of the York Harbour copper-zinc-silver project.
Future expansions at Frontier Energy’s (ASX:FHE) Waroona renewable energy project could benefit from the final design of the Federal Government’s Capacity Investment Scheme in WA, which now allows co-located solar and battery projects rather than just battery projects to participate in the tender.
Iltani Resources (ASX:ILT) drilling has returned further silver-lead-zinc-indium intersections of up to 1552g/t silver equivalent, defining the high-grade zone at the Orient West system over a strike extent of more than 700m.
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Adavale Resources, Airtasker, Belararox, The Calmer Co International, Equinox Resources, Everest Metals Corporation, Firetail Resources, Frontier Energy and Iltani Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
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