Closing Bell: Stocks putting out good news, sneaking in bad news while almost everyone watches the cricket

ASX 200 up ~0.9% to 7,567 points – its highest since August 2021
Small Cap Winners: ARN, BLY, EVR, AGR
Small Cap Losers: IVZ, VIT, GPR

A solid but quiet day on the ASX.

Even CommSec is trading the Bloomberg terminal for beers and test cricket until early January.

The team at CommSec would like to wish you all a very happy festive season and New Year! Our team will return 8 January 2024. Thank you for your support this year. We look forward to keeping you up-to-date with markets in the year ahead.

— CommSec (@CommSec) December 26, 2023

At 4pm eastern time the benchmark ASX 200 was up ~0.9% to 7,567 points – its highest since August 2021. Yew.

TRADING HALTS

These stocks entered trading halts Wednesday and are expected out in the coming days

Mighty Kingdom (ASX:MKL) – capital raise

Entyr (ASX:ETR) — additional detail in respect of the offtake and collaboration agreement with Trafigura

Eagers Automotive (ASX:APE) – cyber incident

WEDNESDAY’S LARGE CAP MOVERS

Winners

Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) +6%

Genesis Minerals (ASX:GMD) +5%

Mercury NZ (ASX:MCY) +5%

Losers

Mader Group (ASX:MAD) -4%

Sigma Healthcare (ASX:SIG) -2.5%

Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) -2%

SMALL CAP LEADERS

Today’s best performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

CODE COMPANY PRICE % VOLUME MARKET CAP BLY Boart Longyear 2.75 57% 96,723 $517,860,725 ARN Aldoro Resources 0.125 52% 3,626,336 $11,039,147 EYE Nova EYE Medical 0.18 50% 1,185,744 $22,875,467 AGR Aguia Res Ltd 0.024 41% 7,617,959 $8,593,175 ICN Icon Energy Limited 0.007 40% 1,006,660 $3,840,068 T3D 333D Limited 0.023 35% 104,041 $2,030,564 EVR Ev Resources Ltd 0.012 33% 7,132,191 $9,896,295 OPT Opthea Limited 0.6 32% 1,483,323 $301,577,928 MEG Megado Minerals Ltd 0.034 31% 439,287 $6,615,845 OZM Ozaurum Resources 0.15 30% 3,219,375 $18,256,250 AMD Arrow Minerals 0.005 25% 14,195,190 $13,895,060 CTN Catalina Resources 0.005 25% 217,700 $4,953,948 FFG Fatfish Group 0.016 23% 9,939,239 $15,473,116 NET Netlinkz Limited 0.008 23% 18,569,187 $24,000,854 AML Aeon Metals Ltd. 0.011 22% 89,072 $9,867,606 ECT Env Clean Tech Ltd. 0.006 20% 2,324,119 $14,321,552 GES Genesis Resources 0.006 20% 1,370 $3,914,206 RIL Redivium Limited 0.006 20% 171,200 $13,654,274 SI6 SI6 Metals Limited 0.006 20% 145,193 $9,969,297 TAS Tasman Resources 0.006 20% 446,932 $3,563,346 PFT Pure Foods Tas Ltd 0.085 20% 40,056 $7,809,646 DXB Dimerix Ltd 0.215 19% 5,213,388 $76,694,381 JLL Jindalee Lithium Ltd 1 19% 47,850 $50,811,698 SER Strategic Energy 0.013 18% 392,845 $5,343,967 DYM Dynamic Metals 0.165 18% 36,549 $4,900,000

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Aldoro Resources (ASX:ARN) is picking up rock chips grading +9% niobium at the Kameelburg project.

Deposits of niobium, a little-known metal made famous by WA1 Resources’ (ASX:WA1) monster find in WA, usually grade between 0.2% and 2.5%.

130 year-old drilling company Boart Longyear (ASX:BLY) will be taken private by a US company via court approved plan of arrangement.

The cash deal values each share at US$1.9554 – a 96% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average price.

The BLY board unanimously recommends the deal to shareholders.

EV Resources (ASX:EVR) has the green light to drill its high grade Parag copper-molybdenum project (EVR: 70%) in Peru.

And phosphate co Aguia Resources (ASX:AGR) continues to run after announcing a deal to acquire private South American gold hunter Andean Mining last week.

Far East Capital analyst and AGR/Andean chair Warwick Grigor calls the deal “a game changer”.

“The main asset of Andean, the Santa Barbara gold mine, stands out for the very high-grade gold that will make it one of the lowest cost gold mines in the world,” he says.

SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Today’s worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

CODE COMPANY PRICE % VOLUME MARKET CAP EMU EMU NL 0.001 -33% 100,000 $3,037,157 VPR Volt Power Group 0.001 -33% 10 $16,074,312 AVW Avira Resources Ltd 0.0015 -25% 348,900 $4,267,580 MHC Manhattan Corp Ltd 0.003 -25% 2,066,234 $11,747,919 VAL Valor Resources Ltd 0.003 -25% 103,000 $16,693,339 YOJ Yojee Limited 0.003 -25% 11,676 $5,223,941 GPR Geopacific Resources 0.016 -24% 1,754,126 $17,256,065 VIT Vitura Health Ltd 0.22 -21% 906,774 $161,244,661 KP2 Kore Potash PLC 0.011 -21% 724,777 $9,380,085 88E 88 Energy Ltd 0.004 -20% 13,075,959 $123,204,013 JAV Javelin Minerals Ltd 0.002 -20% 582,866 $2,720,289 WEL Winchester Energy 0.002 -20% 200,000 $2,551,055 EMH European Metals Hldg 0.39 -19% 252,752 $60,642,131 NSB Neuroscientific 0.04 -18% 565,887 $7,085,639 KLI Killiresources 0.05 -17% 55,497 $3,574,503 AS1 Asara Resources Ltd 0.01 -17% 2,187,724 $8,792,771 SIT Site Group Int Ltd 0.0025 -17% 167,000 $7,807,471 BMM Balkanminingandmin 0.11 -15% 9,844 $9,235,267 KOB Kobaresourceslimited 0.068 -15% 241 $8,433,333 IVZ Invictus Energy Ltd 0.1325 -15% 9,434,798 $200,099,045 GTG Genetic Technologies 0.15 -14% 100,756 $20,198,018 MPK Many Peaks Minerals 0.15 -14% 3,100 $6,365,535 TX3 Trinex Minerals Ltd 0.006 -14% 348 $10,409,173 VMS Venture Minerals 0.006 -14% 5,885,617 $15,470,091 CR9 Corellares 0.019 -14% 251,861 $10,231,999

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Oil and gas hopeful Invictus Energy (ASX:IVZ) has raised more cash, this time $15m at 13c per share. This is a 21% discount to the 5-day VWAP.

IVZ will also launch an entitlement offer to all shareholders with details to be released to the market in January next year.

The company raised a collective $35.4m between April-June, and another $15m in September.

Pot tech stock Vitura Health (ASX:VIT) – formerly known as Cronos Australia — says Code4 Cannabis will not be extending its services agreement with VIT subsidiary Canview.

Gold developer Geopacific Resources (ASX:GPR) will defer a $3.5m debt owed to a major shareholder in exchange for a 4% “prolongation” fee.

Meanwhile miner Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) continues to bleed, down 27% since announcing the dreaded ‘strategic review’ of operations last week in response to plummeting lithium prices.

It is currently paying 24c/sh, down from a peak of $1.67/sh in November last year.

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