The ASX benchmark has closed slightly higher on Monday
\nEnergy Sector gains after oil prices rose over the weekend<\/p>\n
Small caps led Killi Resources, Nyrada and Viridis Mining<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Aussie sharemarket has ended the opening salvo of the week slightly higher, despite ho-hum leads and thanks largely to a strong performance from the Energy Sector.<\/p>\n
At match-out on Monday November 17, the S&P\/ASX 200 (XJO) index was up about nine points, or +0.13% at 7,049:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Via Google<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n There were some decent rises right across the bourse this morning when the index opened with SPI Futures up almost 0.4% and pointing to a strong day, despite a mixed session to end the week on Friday in New York.<\/p>\n In local company news, the ASX (ASX:ASX)<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0has lifted almost +2% after making at least some good progress in replacing its legacy-looking CHESS clearance system.<\/p>\n The energy sector rose by 1.2% after Brent crude lifted more than 4% over the weekend following concerns over inventories and some OPEC+ bluster.\u00a0 The only local set up to miss out on that appears to be Origin Energy, which is down -0.7%, ahead pf this week\u2019s shareholder showdown vote on Brookfield and EIG\u2019s flawed $20bn takeover play.<\/p>\n Oil\u2019s been falling for four weeks and while the recovery will be welcomed by oil traders, Brent is still well below the $US93.00 of late September when we had no idea what Hamas was planning.<\/p>\n Sector leaders include Allkem (ASX:AKE)<\/strong><\/a> , Altium (ASX:ALU)<\/strong><\/a> and Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC)<\/strong><\/a> .<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Chart via Marketindex.com.au<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Materials have ended the day flat after iron ore walked back some of its recent booty, down almost 2% on the Dalian exchange.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Staples, Utilities and Health care stocks draaaaged.<\/p>\n Speaking of a drag \u2013 life for right now for Optus chief executive officer Kelly Bayer Rosmarin. But it\u2019s about to get much better.<\/p>\n KBR resigned earlier today in the wake of the telco\u2019s nationwide outage which caused such nationwide ourtage.<\/p>\n Her Turkey was cooked the moment Singtel started saying things like trust needs to be rebuilt. Under her watch Optus was the target of a major cyber attack last year as well as the total system failure on November 8.<\/p>\n Ms Bayer Rosmarin has in fact been a handy lightning rod for the intense criticism following the black out which left some 10 million customers without the internet.<\/p>\n Bayer Rosmarin said while it \u201chad been an honour to serve\u201d she thought it good to get out now after \u201csome personal reflection\u201d.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Looking overseas, and last week all 3 major US averages clocked a third straight weekly gain \u2013 the Nasdaq surged again, up +2.4% for the week. The S&P 500 added +2.2%, while the the Dow ended the week with a +1.9% rise.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For now, US Futures look pretty undecided on Sunday night in New York:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Via Fox<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:<\/strong><\/p>\n Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:<\/em><\/p>\n WordPress Tables Plugin<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Viridis Mining and Minerals (ASX:VMM)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Diverse minerals hunter Viridis is coming out of a trading halt with some big assay-result news from its newly acquired Colossus rare earths (REE) project in Minas Gerais, Brazil.<\/p>\n The company recently entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100% of the rights to the REEs comprising the Colossus project, consisting of 41 Licenses (including 2 Mining Licenses) covering 56km2 \u201cwithin South America\u2019s largest known alkaline complex\u201d.<\/p>\n Today, the company has announced \u2018major ionic clay rare earth discoveries\u2019 at Colossus, with 46.0m at 3,285 ppm Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO) from surface making the headline.<\/p>\n The VMM share price has subsequently shot up more than\u00a069%<\/strong>\u00a0at the time of writing.<\/p>\n Nyrada Inc is a locally-listed US biotech with a focus fon \u2018small molecule drugs in non-oncology fields, and it\u2019s aapprently had a great AGM today. The mini pharma\/medtech\/small cap is up about 30% on what appears to be a cracking presso (this is the \u2018in summation\u2019 plate)\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Nyrada remains focused on advancing two drug programs: <\/strong><\/p>\n The programs are 1) a TRPC ion channel blocker for secondary brain injury treatment; and 2) an oral PCSK9 inhibitor for cholesterol lowering.<\/p>\n These drug candidates target indications where there is an unmet clinical need, or where current treatments are suboptimal.<\/p>\n The markets for these drugs are large and benefit from key thematic tailwinds:<\/p>\n greater awareness of the costs and consequence of brain injury from the sporting and combat fields, <\/em> In the case of our brain injury program, there are no current FDA-approved treatments despite more than 27 million cases of medically assessed traumatic brain injuries occurring annually . For our hypercholesterolemia program, the current injectable options are both expensive and inconvenient. These present significant market opportunities.<\/p>\n Menwhile, how good is TG Metals (ASX:TG6)<\/strong><\/a>?<\/p>\n The lithium, nickel and gold exploration junior is still rising on Monday, having most recently intercepted high-grade lithium at its Lake Johnston Li-Ni-Au project in the Lake Johnston Greenstone Belt of WA.<\/p>\n The company has nothing fresh to report today that we can see specifically, however, there\u2019s certainly some action going on in the Lake Johnston area with some other projects of note, which could be helping to move neighbouring junior explorer share prices today.<\/p>\n What\u2019s doing then?<\/p>\n Fellow battery metals hunter Charger Metals (ASX:CHR)<\/strong><\/a> and mining behemoth Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO)<\/strong><\/a> have signed a farm-in agreement for what\u2019s known as the Lake Johnston Lithium Project (a different project from TG6\u2019s), while Charger has simultaneously entered into a binding agreement with Lithium Australia (ASX:LIT)<\/strong><\/a> to purchase its minority interest in the project for $2 million to increase Charger\u2019s interest to 100%.<\/p>\n You\u2019d think that\u2019d be sending the CHR and LIT prices skywards, by the way, wouldn\u2019t you? Er, at the time of key tapping, CHR and LIT are both in the red. Certainly good news for the juniors of the Lake Johnston rush more generally though that Rio Tinto is taking an interest.<\/p>\n Late last week, meanwhile, TG6 gave this positive update on its Burmeister prospect at its Lake Johnston Li-Ni-Au project\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n #Drilling<\/a> at the Burmeister #Lithium<\/a> Discovery Progressing well with 6 holes completed to-date<\/p>\n A further 7 holes planned More: https:\/\/t.co\/QAOnxnqvaI<\/a>#TG6<\/a> #exploration<\/a> #WesternAustralia<\/a> #asxnews<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/vvrgWepNS7<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 TG Metals Limited (@TGMetals) November 16, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Killi Resources (ASX:KLI)<\/strong><\/a>, a gold, copper and REEs explorer which is up over +<\/strong>30% on Monday. The stock has been rising after entering a trading halt earlier today, pending an announcement in relation to a potential acquisition of a mineral project.<\/p>\n For the company\u2019s last piece of major news, we travel back briefly in time to October 30, when it announced soil assay results from the Baloo prospect at its Mt Rawdon West project in Queensland, highlighting extensive copper-gold-molybdenum anomalies at surface.<\/p>\n And that appears to be a large system that extends the historical Cu-Au-Mo soil anomaly to 4.5km x 1.5km along a structural corridor \u2013 interpreted as the linking structure between the two mineralised regional faults.<\/p>\n CEO, Kathryn Cutler said, regarding the find: \u201cWe remain convinced we are potentially looking at a new copper-gold mineral discovery for the region.\u201d<\/p>\n Kathryn could be closer, we\u2019ll find out tomorrow.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Here are the day\u2019s worst performing ASX small cap stocks:<\/strong><\/p>\n Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:<\/em><\/p>\n WordPress Tables Plugin<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Killi Resources (ASX:KLI)<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 Pending an announcement in relation to a potential acquisition of a mineral project<\/p>\n Genesis Resources (ASX:GES)<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 Pending a material announcement to the market in relation to the results of a drilling program<\/p>\n Norfolk Metals (ASX:NFL)<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 Pending the release of an announcement in relation to a capital raising<\/p>\n Great Northern Minerals (ASX:GNM)<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 Pending an announcement regarding Alterity Therapeutics (ASX:ATH)<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 Pending an announcement in relation to a capital raise<\/p>\n WT Financial Group (ASX:WTL)<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 Pending an announcement by the Company regarding Healius (ASX:HLS)<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 Pending an announcement to ASX in connection with its debt financing and related capital structure initiatives<\/p>\n ADX Energy (ASX:ADX)<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 Pending an announcement regarding a capital raising,<\/p>\n Firebird Metals (ASX:FRB)<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 Pending release of an announcement by the Company in relation to the results of an updated Manganese Sulphate scoping study.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The post Closing Bell: The ASX is slightly higher, but not much cooler on Monday<\/a> appeared first on Stockhead<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASX Sectors On Monday<\/h2>\n
TODAY\u2019S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS<\/h2>\n
\nchanging demographics with an ageing population, particularly lifestyle and dietary changes leading in increased incidence of high cholesterol<\/em>
\nincreasing incidence and expanding awareness of the need for better treatment options for both of our target indications. <\/em><\/p>\n
Phase 2 drill samples commenced with first assays due within 2 weeks<\/p>\nTODAY\u2019S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS<\/h2>\n
TRADING HALTS<\/h2>\n
\na proposed divestment of certain assets by the Company<\/p>\n
\na corporate acquisition<\/p>\n