Welcome to a quiet Friday at lunch on the ASX.
Just as Guns’n Roses fromtman Axel Rose suggested…
…At lunchtime in Sydney on Friday Nov. 24, the S&P/ASX 200 index was ahead by 24 points or +0.34% to 7053.
Via Google
Before we go on, let’s give you a quick recap over the last weird few days…
Firstly, markets everywhere have been anaemic because these last few sessions as the Americans began thinking about the Thanksgiving holiday they’re on and that other rip-roaring equity market in Tokyo was thinner than a whisper this week while they take a break as well.
The Americans will be back for a wasteful morning session our time tonight, while in Japan – having celebrated Labour Thanksgiving Day on Thursday – they’re already back at it, though the TPOIX and Nikkei are both circa -0.8% on Friday morning.
If you really want to know, American Thanksgiving and Japanese Thanksgiving are totally unrelated, though both holidays are all about giving thanks.
In Japan the thanks is actually real – you go thank all the hardworking people around you.
Japanese kids take off to places like police stations, hospitals, and fire stations, handing out thank you cards, hand-drawn thingys, or small gifts to show appreciation for their services.
In America, they eat turkey, watch football and throw parties, thanking god for turkey, football and parties.
Local markets are making up ground on Friday, after strung out traders on the ASX got crunched on Thursday, thanks to a hawkish tilt from the RBA boss and around the region equities were mixed.
Low volumes abound as the Utilities and Energy Sector are leading the way – up 1.7% and 1.3% respectively.
Healthcare gains have been less pronounced – mainly because it’s not always good for the sector when Novo Nordisk makes big gains as they did overnight – announcing a $US2.3 billion ($3.5 billion) investment to boost production of its insanely successful weight-loss and diabetes drugs.
ASX SECTORS ON FRIDAY
Via MarketIndex
Heaps of company news driving markets today:
Healius (ASX:HLS) is trouncing it on Friday.
Virgin Money UK (ASX:VUK) is not – it’s down more than 6%.
Large cap coal digger Whitehaven (ASX:WHC) is ahead by circa +2% after getting the nod for its prospective Winchester South metallurgical coal project from the Queensland regulators.
Origin Energy (ASX:ORG) is up 2.5% and leading the utility sector rebound.
The takeover target is attracting even more attention now its major shareholder AustralianSuper blasted takeover ringleader Brookfield to “buy more time” on its low ball ($18.7bn) bid.
EV Resources (ASX:EVR) presented at the ‘Hidden Gems’ webinar, explaining why copper deficits are looming, and why the lack of new projects is pushing market into a supply deficit. The company also explained why Peru is a Tier 1 copper jurisdiction, and that EVR’s projects in the country (Don Enrique and Parag) will have drill results in the coming months.
Booktopia Group (ASX:BKG) is having its AGM and chairman Peter George says it is Q@ crunchtime for the online retailer which has faced numerous challenges so far in CY23.
George told shareholders the second quarter is traditionally Booktopia’s big sales blast – they have Cyber Weekend kicking off today with Black Friday sales and then straight on till Christmas.
“As such, while we’re in the midst of this critical time, it is too early for us to form a view on whether this downturn in the first quarter can or cannot be recovered over the course of the year through the various revenue and cost initiatives being undertaken.”
Spirit Technology (ASX:ST1) has secured a new agreement with Cisco for its Webex Wholesale offering. The new agreement extends the market growth achieved with the Cisco cloud communication platform. Spirit will also launch a new Dealer Program with Cisco to resell advanced cloud communication solutions for smaller managed service providers.
ST1 says the new Cisco Webex agreement follows a significant collaboration secured in July last year in which Spirit subsidiary Nexgen became the first business in the Asia Pacific, Japan and China (APJC) region to launch Cisco’s Webex Cloud Wholesale offering, a substantial range of services designed specifically for the small-to-medium business market.
The agreement expands Spirit’s product offering and capability to bring new services to market in an accelerated fashion, the company told the ASX.
In addition, it provides an opportunity to rapidly scale up the Nexgen business and lock in its growth.
Look out – temporarily back in the money was Star Entertainment Group (ASX:SGR) – but stand down because the stock is trading back in the red at the time of writiong.
This morning, the troubled casino operator’s boss, chief executive Robbie Cook revealed Star had won a slight reprieve ahead of its peak trading period with the looming licence suspensions on its The Star Gold Coast and Treasury Brisbane casinos pushed from December 1 this year to May 31 next year, with the Queensland government green lighting the remediation plan.
The deal simply buys Star more time to sort the dramas which led to its public downfall and a $100m fine last December.
And local goldie Kingsgate (ASX:KCN)says that its wholly owned subsidiary, Akara, has found more significant gold intercepts in an area approximately 20km south of the Chatree Gold Mine in Thailand.
RC drilling returned intercepts, including:
• 7723RC: [email protected]/t Au from 61m to 70m
• 7725RC: [email protected]/t Au from 180m to 198m, [email protected]/t Au from 212m to 216m and [email protected]/t Au from 228m to 236m
• 7727RC: [email protected]/t Au from 206m to 209m
• 7728RC: [email protected]/t Au from 77m to 79m [email protected]/t Au from 112m to 132m including [email protected]/t Au from 126m to 130m
ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for 24 November [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
Huge excitement for Riversgold (ASX:RGL) investors – the stock is racing into top spot on Friday’s small cap greatest hits list after snapping up a key 74 sq km tenement application directly along strike – just 8km northeast of the major Andover lithium (spodumene) pegmatite discovery of Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS).
That’s the spot in the lithium-famous Andover Corridor where AZS struck spodumene glory with drilling intersections of up to 209.4m at 1.42% Li2O.
The company reports that their new tenement lies within the structural corridor of the Andover discovery which extends northeast under shallow cover.
Aurumin (ASX:AUN) says it has executed a deal with Polaris Metals, a subsidiary of Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN), for the sale of the iron ore rights on four of its Mt Dimer exploration tenements in WA.
The Mt Dimer exploration tenements are proximal to MinRes’ Carina iron ore mine.
Key terms of the sale include $250k payable to AUN on satisfaction of the conditions precedent, plus progress payments of ~$1.25 million and $1/t royalty on iron ore exported.
ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS
Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for 24 November [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
The post Small Cap Lunch Wrap: The ASX… it’s as green and empty as a jungle in there appeared first on Stockhead.
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