Closing Bell: Monday wasn’t great on the ASX, but we’ll always have Kali

ASX200 has made a withering start to the week, down 0.5%

Banks and Miners can’t stop the rot – it must’ve been something we ate for lunch

Small Cap Winners led by debutante Kali, with junior goldies riding high

Some sorely lacking lustre has made Monday trade on the ASX a painful prolongation of last weeks effort, the leads are weak, the trade is timid and the fine work of December is eroding at pace.

At 4.15pm on Monday, the ASX200 was 38 points or 0.50% lower at 7451:

Via Google

Ironically, the ASX benchmark on Monday looks exactly like inflation doesn’t – something pops at around noon and from there all the sectors deflate as one, like the oxygen / time and/or sanity draining rapidly out of one of any of Tom Hanks’ movies.

Wall Street edged slightly higher on Friday with the S&P 500 up 0.2 per cent.

But all 3 major US stock indexes snapped a 9-week winning streak, with the S&P 500 ending the week down 1.5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite crashed 3.4%.

All 11 ASX Sectors ended in the red, with IT and Materials both done closer to 1% than most.

ASX SECTORS at 4pm on MONDAY

Via MarketIndex

In local company news, the uranium miners are back in action. Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) has jumped more than 4% after the UK revealed plans to spend more than half a billion dollars ($560bn) on a first of its kind nuclear plant.

Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) is also in the money on Monday after locking in an over-oversubscribed cash raising via a share purchase plan.

The $15m cap raise, at $3.95 a pop comes hotly on the heels of the more than $200mn Boss attracted from from institutional investors as it of targets first production at its Honeymoon and Alta Mesa uranium project.

Core Lithium (ASX:CXO), remains on the outer by a long way now that its Finniss lithium mine in the Northern Territory is on ice until lithium prices kick on. The stock was down almost 20%.

The happy day on the bourse belonged to newcomer Kalia (ASX:KLH) which listed today at 39 cents instead of the 25 cents expected, great news for key backer, the Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) rocks-savant Chris Ellison.

Around the region, Asian-Pacific equity markets were pretty directionless at 3pm in Sydney, although stocks in Hong Kong deserve a special mention for doggedly diving lower, despite having already trodden that well-worn path for much of 2023.

The Hang Seng was around 1.4% lower at lunchtime with Tech, Real Estate and Healthcare weighing.

Chinese traders have a few pre-CPI jitters as deflation ramps up.

We’re watching Gold on Monday…

Via TradingEconomics

Gold prices are down under US$2035, extending losses from last week ahead of key US inflation data this week that could influence the outlook for Federal Reserve monetary policy.

Gold fell nearly 1% last week amid a rebound in the dollar and Treasury yields.

The inflation print for December in the US drops on Thursday, investors all over have a lot riding on this one, lacking for the moment a clear way forward on the outlook for Fed monetary policy.

US stockmarket futures at 4.30pm on Monday in Sydney:

Via Fox News

Finally, Bitcoin and its ilk were back heading higher on Thursday in New York.

As mentioned several times this week: Euphoria that the US government will soon approve Bitcoin exchange-traded funds has flowed more than ebbed into the New Year, but there’s doubt now, and it’s creeping.

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Today’s best performing small cap stocks:

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

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap ME1 Melodiol Glb Health 0.002 100% 3,085,952 $4,728,824 CPO Culpeominerals 0.096 68% 60,223,777 $6,644,055 RGS Regeneus Ltd 0.005 67% 2,822,115 $919,311 AMD Arrow Minerals 0.008 60% 116,924,100 $17,368,825 GLA Gladiator Resources 0.027 42% 6,630,901 $11,538,640 NVQ Noviqtech Limited 0.004 33% 3,495,110 $3,928,336 MDR Medadvisor Limited 0.3 33% 526,793 $123,059,210 YRL Yandal Resources 0.115 26% 628,913 $21,360,080 MAT Matsa Resources 0.035 25% 1,828,983 $13,402,873 OAU Ora Gold Limited 0.0075 25% 30,003,839 $34,136,928 DOU Douugh Limited 0.005 25% 408,496 $4,328,276 NES Nelson Resources. 0.005 25% 2,153,447 $2,454,377 BMG BMG Resources Ltd 0.011 22% 2,198,592 $5,704,174 SLM Solismineralsltd 0.175 21% 606,906 $11,368,102 RIL Redivium Limited 0.006 20% 415,157 $13,654,274 ACR Acrux Limited 0.06 18% 726,113 $14,771,180 KBC Keybridge Capital 0.049 17% 24,311 $8,708,189 EEL Enrg Elements Ltd 0.007 17% 180,453 $6,059,790 MHC Manhattan Corp Ltd 0.0035 17% 452,580 $8,810,939 OEQ Orion Equities 0.19 15% 38,667 $2,582,123 FFG Fatfish Group 0.032 14% 25,209,161 $38,926,711 FDR Finder 0.09 14% 106,931 $5,925,000 OZZ OZZ Resources 0.093 13% 103,668 $7,587,470 GUE Global Uranium 0.11 13% 945,500 $20,584,270 GPR Geopacific Resources 0.017 13% 135,524 $12,325,761

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Most of the small cap action early in the day came from the likes of Melodiol Global Health (ASX:ME1) and Arrow Minerals (ASX:AMD), neither of which deposited any fresh news to the market, but it’s important to acknowledge that they’re there, and just move on.

Similarly Cyclone Metals (ASX:CLE) moved upwards in mysterious ways, while Culpeo Minerals (ASX:CPO) continued its climb on last week’s news of a decent-looking copper-gold porphyry rock-sampling report from its La Florida Prospect, in the Fortuna Project in Chile.

In fact, by the looks of things, almost the entire winners list this morning is made up of companies being driven by external forces such as commodity prices, or their gains are simply carry-overs from newsworthy announcements that hit the market last week.

Nova Eye Medical (ASX:EYE) – which also had happy news out last week – was riding that momentum, with a helpful boost this morning from news that the company has managed to grow its US sales revenue up 65% to US$5.1 million for the six months ended 31 December 2023, compared to the same period last year.

And then, like magic at 12pm, Kali Metals (ASX:KM1) made its market debut, and finished its first session on the bourse with a 78% gain under its belt and, I’m guessing, no shortage of high-fives around the table in the boardroom.

By the time the Closing Bell rang, the rest of the afternoon’s success stories looked a lot like this morning – big moves on little news from the like of Gladiator Resources (ASX:GLA), Yandal Resources (ASX:YRL), Matsa Resources (ASX:MAT) and BMG Resources (ASX:BMG) , as investors went bananas piling into a swathe of junior goldies, despite the precious metal dipping 0.5% throughout the day.

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Today’s worst performing small cap stocks:

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Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap MRQ Mrg Metals Limited 0.002 -33% 3,141,700 $7,414,023 TKL Traka Resources 0.002 -33% 240,000 $2,625,988 1AG Alterra Limited 0.006 -25% 380,000 $6,657,177 BP8 Bph Global Ltd 0.0015 -25% 18,986 $3,671,126 CRB Carbine Resources 0.006 -25% 955,494 $4,413,902 FAU First Au Ltd 0.003 -25% 625,145 $6,647,973 SIS Simble Solutions 0.003 -25% 2,000 $2,411,803 MEG Megado Minerals Ltd 0.024 -23% 371,776 $7,888,122 NPM Newpeak Metals 0.018 -22% 179,021 $2,298,890 KZR Kalamazoo Resources 0.1225 -21% 2,206,676 $26,562,268 88E 88 Energy Ltd 0.004 -20% 7,935,074 $123,204,013 CHK Cohiba Min Ltd 0.002 -20% 4,558 $6,325,575 MEL Metgasco Ltd 0.008 -20% 163,318 $10,638,867 RAS Ragusa Minerals Ltd 0.032 -20% 242,026 $5,703,951 MHK Metalhawk. 0.105 -19% 145,475 $12,923,878 DYM Dynamicmetalslimited 0.155 -18% 29,999 $6,650,000 CXO Core Lithium 0.19 -17% 56,493,719 $491,495,175 DLI Delta Lithium 0.35 -17% 4,262,276 $298,803,915 GBZ GBM Rsources Ltd 0.0075 -17% 2,414,500 $6,582,896 NRX Noronex Limited 0.01 -17% 2,085,322 $4,539,621 GL1 Globallith 0.94 -16% 1,411,333 $291,497,135 BKG Booktopia Group 0.053 -16% 343,849 $14,376,921 LLI Loyal Lithium Ltd 0.38 -16% 409,995 $37,479,294 BBT Bluebet Holdings Ltd 0.22 -15% 760,981 $52,285,683 BPH BPH Energy Ltd 0.058 -15% 27,700,277 $69,763,032

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