Crackerjack week for the market – except for Thursday, which wasn’t great at all.
ASX 200 benchmark wraps the week close to 2.0pc better off.
Real Estate the clear winner among the sectors, gaining more than 6.0pc
What a week it’s been! There was plenty of action, the ASX 200 benchmark touched a record high, and on balance every single sector gained healthy ground as local investors finally got their groove on for 2024.
It wasn’t a non-stop Festival of Fun, of course – Thursday saw a real slap-in-the-face sell-off that carved more than 1.2% out of the rump of a still-breathing ASX, courtesy of US Fed Chief Jerome Powell chanelling his inner creepy carnival gypsy, and telling US investors of a fortune that they defo didn’t want to hear.
The tech sell-off that followed on Wall Street bled heavily into local sentiment, and really knocked the gloss off an otherwise stellar week.
But, the dust has settled on a scorching Friday afternoon, the ASX 200 is up handsomely again today, and I’m about 10 minutes away from abandoning my post to go fishing.
Before I do, here’s what the week looked like.
Chart via Marketindex.com.au
Real Estate was the big winner this week, with the sector banking a better than 6.0% gain, with a good sized chunk of that coming via sector heavyweight Goodman, which pocketed a 6.2% rise all on its own today to break through the $50 billion market cap barrier.
The Energy sector also did well this week, largely because you’ve all gone completely mental over uranium stocks again this week, with the added oomph of a wildly variable commodities market adding fuel to the yellow cake fire.
At a more granular level, the goldies did well – as always, it seems – getting a little extra juice from safe haven runners when the ASX shit the bed on Thursday.
The best of the rest came from our beloved Small Caps, which combined to kick the tin for more than 2.3% of gains as investors bought into the risk while the market was chugging along at top speed early in the week.
Chart via Marketindex.com.au
But, who won the week? Let’s find out together…
SMALL CAP WINNERS THIS WEEK
Well, would you look at that? Not one, but three small cappers that managed to break 100% gains over the course of the past five sessions.
Mako Gold (ASX:MKG) is in the mix, benefitting from renewed exploration efforts that included news of rock chip sampling at the Tchaga North prospect within its Napié project in Côte d’Ivoire, which has discovered gold-mineralised areas with top assays of up to 79.5g/t gold.
DiscovEX Resources (ASX:DCX) had a banger as well, delivering a solid quarterly early in the week and getting a free shot in the arm, thanks to some late mail via Carnaby Resources (ASX:CNB).
Carnaby has been exploring at its Greater Duchess Project in the Mt. Isa Region of Queensland, and drilled into a whopper of a copper find, returning assays like 10m (TW~7m) @ 3.3% Cu, 0.1g/t Au, including 4m (TW~3m) @ 7.0% Cu, 0.05g/t Au.
Discovex currently holds a 17.5% free-carried interest where those intersections are coming from, and so it’s enjoyed a free hit at even more gains. Easy money.
And Avira Resources (ASX:AVW) is also showing a 100% gain for the week, but… it’s a move from $0.001 to $0.002, and the company ain’t said more than a passing hello to the ASX since 25 January.
So a moral third place trophy goes to Bougainville Copper (ASX:BOC) , up 74% for the week – sorry, make that 88% for the week – wait! It’s up over 100%, and all of it in the final 90 minutes on Friday afternoon, on news that the company has been awarded a five-year extension to its EL01 exploration licence for the Panguna project in Central Bougainville.
This is huge news for BOC, and caps a horrifying 5-year ordeal to see how the chips were going to fall, after the Autonomous Bougainville Government basically said “nope – not yours” to BOC over Panguna, and the political and legal fighting began.
So… there you have it – a big win for BOC, and a lesson for gregor about why it’s important to wait until the end of the day before you start writing stuff. Idiot.
SMALL CAP LAGGARDS THIS WEEK
HOW THE WEEK SHOOK OUT
Monday 29 January, 2024
Avira Resources (ASX:AVW) was nominally on top of the winner’s list early, boasting a 100% jump to $0.002 per share, as local investors took a low-cost punt on the company’s recently-completed Phase 2 drill program at the Puolalaki Ni-Cu-Co-Au Project.
Copper prices are in the midst of a little boom at the moment, gold prices are holding above US$2,000 an ounce and it’s probably best we don’t talk about cobalt – but three outta four ain’t bad, and Avira’s got assay results due to market in the coming weeks.
Next best was Mako Gold (ASX:MKG), up 33% early in the wake of a due diligence update from the company about its flagship Napié Gold Project, where the company has been beavering away with a low-cost geological mapping and rock chip sampling at the Tchaga Nor target.
Mako boss Peter Ledwidge says the company is focussing its efforts on the western greenstone granite contact at Tchaga North and on new structural trends at the site, while progressing due diligence on a proposed “accretive transaction” with Goldridge, with negotiations there expected to recommence shortly.
The alarmingly-named Sacgasco (ASX:SGC) pumped its way into third place early, up 30% on news that three directors have bought into the company a little deeper, snapping up half a million shares each for a smidge over $4,500.
Adisyn (ASX:AI1) – the company formerly known as DC Two – banked a handsome climb in the afternoon off the back of a positive quarterly, and BlackWall (ASX:BWF) is up modestly after releasing an amended Appendix 4G and Governance Statement to the market late last week.
Tuesday 30 January, 2024
Up top for the Small Caps on Tuesday morning was City Chic Collective (ASX:CCX), with a 23% gain on news that the company has weathered a difficult six months that saw cost-cutting, inventory clearing and a headcount reduction result in a dip in revenue to ~$53.8 million for its Australia/New Zealand sector, down 32% on PCP.
Similarly, revenue fell to ~$52.0 million – down 26% in PCP – for its Americas division, but despite how that looks, it’s actually good news for the company.
The result is in line with the strategic decisions the company has made in an effort to get the business back on track, with inventory expected to be approximately $39.5 million at the end of H1 FY24, down 27% from July when the company was massively overstocked and struggling.
Similarly, a happy news story from LiveHire (ASX:LVH) helped it to a prize-winning gain in early trade, with the company reporting Q2 positive Net Operating Cashflow of $0.8m, and clearly very grateful for the $1.4 million R&D refund that pushed it into positive territory.
Delivery platform Zoom2u Technologies (ASX:Z2U) also delivered a quarterly, showing that group revenue for Q2 FY24 is at $1.6 million, 37% higher on PCP, which was good enough news to get investors in behind a climb of around 18% through the morning.
Late in the day, there were a couple of bolters – namely nickel chaser Alliance Nickel (ASX:AXN), and US-based lithium hunters Chariot Corporation (ASX:CC9), both of which managed to snag ~30% worth of gains despite a notable lack of news.
Wednesday 31 January, 2023
Wednesday’s Small Caps winners list had Mako Gold (ASX:MKG) at the top of the ladder, after posting an activities report and balance sheets to the market that investors decided was all really good news.
The short version was that things are progressing well for the company, particularly at its flagship Napié Gold Project in Côte d’Ivoire, where low-cost exploration work is continuing.
Meanwhile, the company has progressed its due diligence ahead of a proposed accretive transaction with Goldridge, that would see Mako consolidate its holdings and create a district scale gold play in the area.
There were, as always it seems, a couple of small caps making big moves for mysterious reasons – and that included both Iris Metals (ASX:IR1) (+22.7%) and Cleo Diagnostics (ASX:COV) (+21.4%), with neither of them having fresh news to pin it on.
Delorean (ASX:DEL) made headway after the company handed in its report card for the quarter, with news that its focus on project delivery is enabling it to “return to growth and profitability” – plus, it’s got close to $5 million smackers in the bank, and investors like that kind of thing a lot.
And last but not least, game makers Playside Studios (ASX:PLY) reported record quarterly revenue of $20.7 million, a 106% jump on PCP, and well ahead of the prior quarterly total of $15.5 million.
The company also reported a record Original IP revenue of $11.1 million, +245% against the same period last year, and a 41% jump to another record, this time in Work for Hire revenue totalling $9.6 million.
Investors were mashing their controllers as fast as their crusty old thumbs could manage, and Playside was up 20% before lunch.
ActivePort Group (ASX:ATV) rose on the back of a solid quarterly, which reported the company had managed to boost revenue from operations by 7% to $3.73 million from Q1, and is boasting positive operating cashflow up $1.30 million, after the company accepted its R&D refund for FY23, taking net cash and equivalents up in the quarter from $1.66 million at the end of Q1 to $2.58 million at the end of Q2.
Thursday 01 February, 2024
Mineral Commodities (ASX:MRC) s was out in front on the Small Caps ladder early, on the heels of an upbeat quarterly that painted a picture of a little digger that’s happy in its own skin and doing pretty good.
The company recently completed a Rights Issue, raising $8.8 million to help fund its core activities, which currently revolve around recommencement of operations at the Skaland Graphite mine, and meeting payment obligations as the company works towards 100% ownership of the project.
Singular Health Group (ASX:SHG) added a 48% jump to its bag of tricks, coming out of a trading halt with the announcement that it has locked in a purchase order for 50 3Dicom R&D licences and 5,000 3Dicom Patient licences, for total value of approximately $152,000, via the Roseman University of Health Sciences in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“While the $152k contract is not huge, the purchase means that Roseman University has become the first US College to adopt Singular’s 3Dicom R&D software as a medical education tool, in a market forecast to be worth USD$17.6 billion by 2027,” Eddy reported this morning.
BPM Minerals (ASX:BPM) was in the headlines with a healthy 37.5% gain, following a cheerful quarterly yesterday and news that the company has kicked off a 10,000m drilling program along strike of Capricorn Metals’ (ASX:CMM) 3.24Moz Mt Gibson Gold Project, just 500m from Capricorn’s recent intersection of 16m @ 17.16g/t from 32m.
Friday 02 February, 2024
Mako Gold (ASX:MKG) was shining happily and making great headway on news that rock chip sampling at the Tchaga North prospect within its Napié project in Côte d’Ivoire has discovered gold-mineralised areas with top assays of up to 79.5g/t gold.
Delorean (ASX:DEL) is moving upwards for the second time this week, up another 25% on Friday to take the company past +66.6% for the year so far – the only news we’ve had from them is the quarterly that dropped earlier in the week.
Metallica Minerals (ASX:MLM) and Freedom Care Group (ASX:FCG) are on the move for reasons known only to them, and Yandal Resources (ASX:YRL) has jumped a Richie Benaud-pleasing 22.22%, on news that the company has received firm commitments for 31.2 million shares at $0.08 a pop, set to raise A$2.5 million before costs, with the money earmarked to accelerate exploration.
Most of the afternoon’s big winners were little companies making decent jumps on no news – including HitIQ (ASX:HIQ) , Dubber Corp (ASX:DUB) and Gold Hydrogen (ASX:GHY), with the latter possibly getting some belated love from the investor prezzo it dropped on Thursday morning.
But the day belonged to a late bolter, Bougainville Copper (ASX:BOC) which went screaming up the charts in the final 90 minutes of trading, after revealing that a 5-year legal battle with the Autonomous Bougainville Government is over, with the company being granted a 5-year extension to its EL01 exploration licence for the Panguna project in Central Bougainville.
The Autonomous Bougainville Government effectively shuttered the project in 2018, leaving BOC in limbo and with a ball-achingly massive fight on its hands – but all’s well that ends well, and BOC’s back in business.
This has pleased investors quite a bit – and the company shot up 128.57% before the market closed… I suspect that there might be some more action for them, come Monday morning.
IPOs we’re (still) waiting for…
Golden Globe Resources (ASX:GGR)
Expected listing: January 18, 2024
IPO:$6 million at 20 cents/share
The gold explorer with projects in Queensland, WA and NSW was down to list on the local bourse in October 2023. In the last four years, the company says it has acquired four projects with high prospectivity including Dooloo Creek and Alma in Queensland, Crossways in Western Australia, and Neila Creek in NSW.
GGR says each of these projects offers substantial opportunities for gold resources, including high-grade copper. The explorer has conducted extensive drilling and sampling at Dooloo Creek, yielding impressive results over the past two years.
There are plans for further drilling across all GGR projects, with an immediate focus on Neila Creek and ongoing efforts at Dooloo Creek.
K S Capital is lead manager of the float.
The post ASX Small Caps and IPO Weekly Wrap: Three – no, FOUR – small caps break 100pc. What a handsome kitty! appeared first on Stockhead.
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