\u00a0<\/p>\n
The needle barely moved all told, ASX benchmark ends the week up 0.25pc
\nInfoTech wins, Health Care loses and that\u2019s mostly down to a couple of large caps
\nWeakening US dollar at the tail end of the week helps Resources claw back losses<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
This week has been fairly pedestrian in many respects, but a mid-week \u2013 and unexpected \u2013 Valentine\u2019s Day massacre put a pretty good ding in the market\u2019s driver-side door and capped the weekly winnings at the +0.25% mark.<\/p>\n
The skyline was dominated by a massive tech surge on Thursday, which saw the InfoTech sector bank more than 7.2% worth of gains for the week, which is kind of a big deal.<\/p>\n
There were two clear catalysts for that rise; the first of them being an absolute banger for large cap tech mob Altium (ASX:ALU)<\/strong><\/a> , after the multi-billion dollar market cap \u201cglobal leader in electronics design systems\u201d revealed that a deal has been struck that would see Renesas Electronics acquire \u201call outstanding shares of Altium for a cash price of A$68.50 per share, representing a total equity value of approximately A$9.1 billion\u201d \u2013 a juicy premium to the previous day\u2019s $51.26 close for ALU.<\/p>\n An hour or so later, January\u2019s unemployment figures \u2013\u00a0up slightly to 4.1% \u2013\u00a0landed, and it was like someone lit a bottle rocket deep inside the tech sector\u2019s bum, sending it hurtling heavenward more than 100 points in the space of minutes.<\/p>\n The other big large cap news came from pharma giant CSL (ASX:CSL)<\/a>, which started the week by dropping some really bad news on the market, after its big play into the global heart attack market stumbled at the third hurdle.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s Phase 3 AEGIS-II trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of heart attack drug CSL112 \u201cdid not meet its primary efficacy endpoint of MACE \u2013 major adverse cardiovascular events \u2013 reduction at 90 days\u201d.<\/p>\n CSL did also point out that there were \u201cno major safety or tolerability concerns with CSL112\u201d, so the issue is that the drug simply doesn\u2019t do what it was meant to do.<\/p>\n The market took the news hard \u2013 it\u2019s kinda rare for such a large company to have a drug trial fall apart at this stage of proceedings \u2013 and CSL was down close to 5.0% mid morning, and continued to drag for most of the week.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Materials and Energy were both at the whim of the commodities markets all week, and it wasn\u2019t pretty for most.<\/p>\n Sinking prices across a wide range of key metals and industrials put a lot of downward pressure on those two sectors.<\/p>\n However, a late-in-the-week form slump from the US dollar helped make things more expensive, which in turn offered some level of structural support, enough to spark a bit of a rally on Friday.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t enough to lift either of those sectors out of the red entirely, though.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Chart via Marketindex.com.au<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But, who won the week? Let\u2019s find out together\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n SMALL CAP WINNERS THIS WEEK<\/p>\n Code Company Price % Week Market Cap LNU Linius Tech Limited 0.0025 150% $9,878,481.43 TD1 Tali Digital Limited 0.002 100% $6,590,311.25 BRX Belararox Ltd 0.245 81% $18,445,445.20 AUK Aumake Limited 0.005 67% $9,572,034.01 ENV Enova Mining Limited 0.03 67% $17,946,021.52 KPO Kalina Power Limited 0.005 67% $8,840,512.04 DUB Dubber Corp Ltd 0.22 63% $70,426,850.94 HTG Harvest Tech Grp Ltd 0.03 58% $21,178,900.14 MKG Mako Gold 0.022 57% $14,573,006.95 VMS Venture Minerals 0.014 56% $17,680,104.28 HMY Harmoney Corp Ltd 0.65 53% $66,276,695.55 GRE Greentech Metals 0.34 51% $28,587,191.50 BP8 Bph Global Ltd 0.0015 50% $2,753,344.67 KGD Kula Gold Limited 0.009 50% $3,808,907.29 PNX PNX Metals Limited 0.006 50% $32,283,748.31 PUA Peak Minerals Ltd 0.003 50% $3,124,129.85 YRL Yandal Resources 0.135 50% $32,861,661.84 BRN Brainchip Ltd 0.24 50% $361,162,937.00 QXR Qx Resources Limited 0.022 47% $29,972,102.06 ARV Artemis Resources 0.019 46% $27,059,138.38 AXN Alliance Nickel Ltd 0.046 44% $29,759,424.22 ACS Accent Resources NL 0.01 43% $4,731,272.83 JAN Janison Edu Group 0.355 42% $95,851,089.00 OPN Oppenneg 0.007 40% $9,033,437.08 DEL Delorean Corporation 0.053 39% $11,433,208.50 IR1 Iris Metals 0.78 38% $81,575,538.66 CCZ Castillo Copper Ltd 0.0055 38% $6,497,526.78 BOC Bougainville Copper 0.475 36% $200,531,250.00 DRO Droneshield Limited 0.695 35% $361,170,630.49 RDM Red Metal Limited 0.175 35% $53,698,200.84 CL8 Carly Holdings Ltd 0.02 33% $4,830,667.04 NES Nelson Resources 0.004 33% $2,454,377.31 SRY Story-I Limited 0.004 33% $1,505,619.43 SYR Syrah Resources 0.52 33% $364,984,774.20 OIL Optiscan Imaging 0.098 31% $81,863,398.69 AUN Aurumin 0.039 30% $15,054,609.40 PER Percheron 0.075 29% $64,009,692.94 NGL Nightingale Intelligent Sytems 0.053 29% $5,479,125.13 AUR Auris Minerals Ltd 0.009 29% $4,289,633.61 KAU Kaiser Reef 0.135 29% $21,380,486.75 PEC Perpetual Res Ltd 0.009 29% $5,760,264.78 CYP Cynata Therapeutics 0.185 28% $32,333,721.48 GTE Great Western Exploration 0.042 27% $16,008,488.38 HT8 Harris Technology Gl 0.014 27% $4,187,896.73 TGM Theta Gold Mines Ltd 0.14 27% $64,750,125.26 PLC Premier1 Lithium Ltd 0.044 26% $5,881,195.76 WC8 Wildcat Resources 0.54 26% $562,043,917.81 ZIP ZIP Co Ltd.. 0.91 26% $888,558,677.31 EOS Electro Optic Sys. 1.455 25% $233,737,148.19 ASV Asset Vision Co 0.01 25% $7,258,365.65 <\/p>\n WordPress Table Plugin<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The clear winner this week was American Rare Earths, which banked a highly impressive 164% increase since close of play last week, which was all the more impressive considering the headwinds that sector had been facing all week.<\/p>\n The weird part about it is that ARR went soaring without the benefit of actual, tangible news to hang its success on \u2013 the last thing of note that it had to say to the ASX was on 07 February, when it announced an upgrade of its mineral resource estimate at Halleck Creek which had increased to 2.34 billion tonnes at 3,166 ppm TREO.<\/p>\n It\u2019s great news, obviously, but\u2026 +164% worth? Investors seemed to think so.<\/p>\n Venture Minerals lobbed into second place for the week, again on slightly old news but with the benefit of a bit of the ol\u2019 razzle dazzle at the RIU Explorers conference. ARR lifted 88% to $0.015 per share.<\/p>\n And it was another faintly mysterious mover in third place for the week, after InhalerX popped a +80% wheelie down the middle of main street, apparently just because it can.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n SMALL CAP LAGGARDS THIS WEEK<\/p>\n Code Company Price % Week Market Cap TTA TTA Holdings Ltd 0.003 -73% $412,270.23 EE1 Earths Energy Ltd 0.014 -66% $7,419,499.05 BCT Bluechiip Limited 0.006 -51% $4,772,242.76 SLB Stelar Metals 0.084 -46% $4,245,041.93 T3D 333D Limited 0.01 -41% $1,313,894.29 DY6 DY6 Metals 0.052 -39% $2,567,228.69 MSG Mcs Services Limited 0.01 -38% $1,782,896.87 WIN Widgie Nckel 0.0415 -36% $12,513,692.23 M24 Mamba Exploration 0.034 -36% $8,099,620.14 EPX EP&T Global Limited 0.02 -36% $9,810,101.62 ARC ARC Funds Limited 0.125 -34% $5,714,506.88 EMU EMU NL 0.001 -33% $2,024,771.29 JAV Javelin Minerals Ltd 0.001 -33% $1,633,728.79 JAY Jayride Group 0.02 -33% $4,453,773.24 NET Netlinkz Limited 0.004 -33% $15,513,793.42 NRZ Neurizer Ltd 0.006 -33% $8,483,464.99 RBR RBR Group Ltd 0.002 -33% $4,855,213.98 VPR Volt Power Group 0.001 -33% $10,716,208.21 YPB YPB Group Ltd 0.002 -33% $1,580,922.94 INV Investsmart Group 0.105 -32% $22,115,475.02 PIM Pinnacle Minerals 0.09 -31% $3,812,942.87 UNT Unith Ltd 0.014 -30% $13,510,712.51 HXL Hexima 0.012 -29% $1,837,435.92 SCN Scorpion Minerals 0.018 -28% $7,370,211.46 IMR Imricor Med Systems 0.43 -28% $76,857,750.97 AMT Allegra Medical 0.023 -26% $2,631,442.62 MXO Motio Ltd 0.023 -26% $8,582,347.07 GLN Galan Lithium Ltd 0.305 -26% $124,589,390.40 RBX Resource B 0.056 -25% $4,961,069.10 CNJ Conico Ltd 0.003 -25% $4,710,284.84 ENT Enterprise Metals 0.003 -25% $3,207,883.73 INP Incentiapay Ltd 0.003 -25% $3,731,790.05 MOH Moho Resources 0.006 -25% $3,215,646.98 MRD Mount Ridley Mines 0.0015 -25% $11,677,324.30 MRQ MRG Metals Limited 0.0015 -25% $4,942,682.06 OXT Orexplore Technologies 0.024 -25% $4,885,391.15 PLN Pioneer Lithium 0.12 -25% $3,979,500.14 RGS Regeneus Ltd 0.006 -25% $1,838,621.48 TMK TMK Energy Limited 0.0045 -25% $30,612,896.50 VAR Variscan Mines Ltd 0.009 -25% $3,411,003.31 WFL Wellfully Limited 0.003 -25% $1,478,832.41 ZMM Zimi Ltd 0.03 -25% $3,905,783.33 EVS Envirosuite Ltd 0.064 -25% $78,621,707.22 CBE Cobre 0.052 -25% $14,919,371.74 LPM Lithium Plus 0.16 -24% $14,188,053.00 REE Rarex Limited 0.016 -24% $10,934,185.17 FTL Firetail Resources 0.045 -24% $7,296,372.24 DTR Dateline Resources 0.01 -23% $13,295,561.64 IPD Impedimed Limited 0.081 -23% $171,981,173.37 MTC Metalstech Ltd 0.17 -23% $32,122,280.30 <\/p>\n WordPress Table Plugin<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Monday 12 February, 2024<\/p>\n American Rare Earths (ASX:ARR)<\/a> was way out in front of the game on Monday morning, despite not having any news for the ASX today \u2013 possibly on the heels of Friday\u2019s investor presentation, and late news that chairman Ken Traub has been replaced by non-executive director Richard Hudson. Traub is set to remain on the board as a non-executive director.<\/p>\n But that seems kinda unlikely, given that 99.9% of the time, shuffling of the board is roundly ignored by investors, especially in the absence of any really juicy gossip \u2013 but the company did respond to a Please Explain from the ASX with a cheerful \u201cWe don\u2019t know either\u201d about the sudden surge in price.<\/p>\n Appen (ASX:APX)<\/a> climbed on news that the company has finalised details of additional measures to mitigate the impact of the loss of a material customer contract.<\/p>\n On 22 January, Appen was dealt a major blow when Google told the company that it would no longer require its services, bringing work between the two companies to a halt on or before 19 March 2024 \u2013 a huge blow for Appen, as Google\u2019s contract was worth $82.8 million at a gross margin of 26% in FY23.<\/p>\n Battery metals explorer Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ)<\/a> went soaring late in the day without any news to explain why, as did RareX (ASX:REE)<\/a> \u2013 but with tin and silver the only metals and\/or industrials showing any signs of positive movement in commodities, it could have been something obscure getting very valuable today, or it could just have been the wind\u2026<\/p>\n And Nanollose (ASX:NC6)<\/a> lifted through the afternoon, on news that it has received the first purchase order for 340kg of the company\u2019s Nullarbor-20 fibre, with the order coming from Orta Anadolu Ticaret Ve Sanayi I\u0307s\u0327letmesi, which is apparently \u201ca leader in clothing sustainability\u201d. (Turkish jeans are bloody comfy, though.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Tuesday 13 February, 2024<\/p>\n Dateline Resources (ASX:DTR)<\/a> was well out in front Tuesday morning, after the company reported hitting wide, high grade gold during drilling at its Colosseum Gold Project in San Bernardino County, California, with the highlight being 70.1m @ 6.53g\/t Au in drill hole CM23-14 Inc. 25.9m @ 15.31g\/t Au.<\/p>\n IncentiaPay (ASX:INP)<\/a> was also tracking well in early trade, after the company delivered its half-yearly report after hours on Monday evening, showing that while revenue has faltered -6.41% to 8,674,712 in PCP, the company has managed to turn around Loss from ordinary activities after tax attributable to members by 80.6% to $3,236,540, compared to $16,707,381 on PCP.<\/p>\n And a takeover deal in the works pushed Ansarada (ASX:AND)<\/a> higher, after the company entered into a Scheme Implementation Deed with Datasite, an entity owned by funds managed by CapVest, to acquire 100% of the fully diluted share capital in Ansarada at $2.50 cash per share, which implies an equity value of A$236.3 million and represents a premium of 19.0% to the last closing price of A$2.10 per share.<\/p>\n Hammer Metals (ASX:HMX)<\/a> took off like a jackrabbit around lunchtime, rushing through +37% before going into a trading halt, ahead of announcing drilling results from one of its copper interests in the Mt Isa region of Queensland.<\/p>\n BrainChip Holdings (ASX:BRN)<\/a> also enjoyed a sizeable jump during the day, responding to an ASX \u201cPlease Explain\u201d with \u201cnothing to see here\u201d, leaving the company\u2019s 19% leap a total mystery\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Wednesday 14 February, 2024<\/p>\n Blue Star Helium (ASX:BNL)<\/a> got off to a good start early in the day, after the company revealed results from initial testing and evaluation at Bolling #4 SESW well, which resulted in gas to surface flow of >4% helium under vacuum with flow up to 268.4 mscf\/d. The company has engineers evaluating well production potential.<\/p>\n Rox Resources (ASX:RXL)<\/a> had good news, revealing that it has recently completed geophysical Gradient Array Induced Polarisation (GAIP) surveys at its Mt Fisher and Mt Eureka gold projects in Western Australia, identifying numerous high-priority, walk-up drill targets in the process.<\/p>\n The new targets add to a previous result from its 100% owned Mt Fisher project, which the company reported as 9m @ 34.34g\/t Au, with work continuing on both that project and the 51% (with an avenue for earn-in up to 75%) owned Mt Eureka site.<\/p>\n Bastion Minerals (ASX:BMO)<\/a> was also making news on Wednesday morning, announcing that 53 samples from old mine workings have confirmed that the strategic 115km2 Gyttorp land holding in Southern Sweden is highly prospective for high-grade REE, with laboratory results to 6.8% (68,078 ppm) total REE + yttrium and elevated results throughout the property.<\/p>\n The company says that other high-grade Total REE+Y samples that exceeded 1.0% (10,000 ppm) include: 3.09%, 2.85%, 2.46%, 2.09%, 1.52%, 1.49%, 1.45%, 1.29% and 1.1%.<\/p>\n Hammer Metals (ASX:HMX)<\/a> announced that its JV partner, Sumitomo Metal Mining Oceania, has reached a $6 million (60% interest) earn-in milestone and has elected to continue to fund the JV, with drilling of the Shadow South IOCG target scheduled to commence in early March.<\/p>\n As such, Hammer has elected to dilute its position in the MIEJV in accordance with the JV agreement, noting that it can elect to contribute to the Joint Venture in the future to maintain its interest at that point in time.<\/p>\n Kin Mining (ASX:KIN)<\/a> surged more than 19% on no news, earning itself a speeding ticket from the ASX, while Sovereign Cloud Holdings (ASX:SOV)<\/a> jumped around 24% in after-lunch trade, also without much in the way of news for the market.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Thursday 15 February, 2024<\/p>\n James Bay Minerals (ASX:JBY)<\/a> was at the top of the leader charts early on Thursday, posting a 42% gain on news that a review of aeromagnetic and spectromagnetic survey results across its flagship Joule Property, within the 100%-owned La Grande Lithium Project in the James Bay region of Quebec, Canada, has generated significant new rare earths and uranium targets.<\/p>\n The announcement includes this nugget of information from Joel Dube from Dynamic Discovery Geoscience, who commented: \u201cAs a comparison, Joule is only one of two projects over the entire James Bay area, including the Matoush Uranium Project area, with maximum eU values exceeding 20 ppm, while the global average is approximately 0.5 ppm. This is considering a thorough review of over 80,000 l-km of public airborne gamma-ray spectrometric data.\u201d<\/p>\n James Bay executive director, Andrew Dornan, was quick to point out that the company \u201cwill remain firmly focused on LCT pegmatites with potential for world-class lithium discoveries\u201d, but these results \u201ccannot be ignored\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we have been doing for lithium, we will continue to sample and understand all relevant minerals on our properties,\u201d Dornan said.<\/p>\n Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY)<\/a> surged throughout the morning despite no fresh news, as did Yojee (ASX:YOJ)<\/a> \u2013 they were trading 32% and 25% higher respectively by lunchtime.<\/p>\n Way2VAT (ASX:W2V)<\/a> was surging on news that it\u2019s set to roll out a new product called \u201cAI-AP Compliance\u201d, which the company says is a world-first AI-driven automated accounts payable auditing product, which it says has been built out to tie in seamlessly with the rest of its AI-driven software suite.<\/p>\n Large capper Altium (ASX:ALU)<\/a> was also on the winners list \u2013 it\u2019s not often we get to see an $8 billion company this high up in the rankings \u2013 so it\u2019s definitely worth another mention, because it\u2019s currently trading 28% higher than it was Wednesday.<\/p>\n And in late mail, it seems like Bellavista Resources (ASX:BVR)<\/a> lit a fire under a few folks\u2019 backsides at the RIU Explorers conference \u2013 after posting its presentation as an ASX announcement, it barrelled through a very tidy +30% jump.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Friday 16 February, 2024<\/p>\n The Australian Wealth Advisors Group (ASX:WAG)<\/a> made its debut this morning, and was leading the ladder through the afternoon session, up close to 50% from its $0.25 IPO price that brought in $5 million.<\/p>\n The company, which refers to itself as AWAG, was \u201cfounded in Melbourne in September 2021 by a group of experienced financial market professionals as a holding company\u201d, and has a stated mission to \u201cacquire and build upon sound, profitable and complementary Australian financial services businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n Adslot (ASX:ADS)<\/a> was up on news of the launch of a new wholly-owned subsidiary called Br1dge, a New York based tech company \u201cestablished to capitalise on the significant opportunities emerging with the imminent deprecation of 3rd party cookies\u201d.<\/p>\n Third party cookies are the privacy-invading snippets of code that websites leave on your computer so advertisers can continue beaming you ads for monster-sized sex toys long after you\u2019re done with that part of your browsing for the evening and scuttled back to Reddit in shame.<\/p>\n Big tech is phasing out the use of those cookies \u2013 most browsers won\u2019t accept them by the end of the year \u2013 but by the looks of things, Adslot (via Br1dge) has found a workaround that will keep the targeted ads rolling in, so\u2026 hooray?<\/p>\n Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY)<\/a> saw a bit of a rush in the morning, after the company advised the market that it\u2019s current diamond drilling programme at the Cadillac Project is \u201cwell advanced and ahead of schedule\u201d, with 22 holes completed to date on four separate pegmatite targets.<\/p>\n Mighty Kingdom climbed higher after informing the market after hours on Thursday of its intention to buy back all MKL shares held by Gamestar Studios \u2013 all 59,657,143 of them \u2013\u00a0for the princely sum of $1.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The Australian Wealth Advisors Group (ASX:WAG)<\/span><\/p>\n Listed: February 16, 2024 The Australian Wealth Advisors Group (ASX:AWG)<\/strong><\/a> (or AWAG, please\u2026 I don\u2019t want to keep typing that mouthful out over and over again) made its market debut on Friday 16 February, breaking immediately into a gallop and climbing as high as $0.37 by mid afternoon, before coming slightly off the boil as investors took profits to spend on the weekend.<\/p>\n The company describes itself as having a stated mission to \u201cacquire and build upon sound, profitable and complementary Australian financial services businesses\u201d, and will be led by Executive Chairman Lee IaFrate, with Paul Young, Mark Stephen and Michael Fitzpatrick AO filling out the remainder of the director\u2019s chairs.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n All dates are sourced from the ASX website. They can, and frequently do, change without notice.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Metals Acquisition (ASX:MAC)<\/span><\/p>\n Expected listing: February 20, 2024 MAC is focused on operating and acquiring metals and mining businesses in high quality, stable jurisdictions that are critical in the electrification and decarbonisation of the global economy.<\/p>\n The company completed its first acquisition with the purchase of the CSA copper mine in Australia from Glencore PLC in June 2023.<\/p>\n The CSA Mine is located in Cobar in regional NSW, and is one of Australia\u2019s highest grade copper mines. CSA Mine produces about 40,000 tonnes of copper each year.<\/p>\n In addition to the current operations, MAC also holds 566 square kilometres of tenements with the potential to expand and extend CSA\u2019s future mine life.<\/p>\n Metals Acquisition is primarily listed on the NYSE under the ticker MTAL, and is now seeking a secondary listing on the ASX with CDI (CHESS depository interests) securities.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Golden Globe Resources (ASX:GGR)<\/span><\/p>\n Expected listing: February 26, 2024 The gold explorer with projects in Queensland, WA and NSW was down to list on the local bourse in October 2023.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n There are plans for further drilling across all GGR projects, with an immediate focus on Neila Creek and ongoing efforts at Dooloo Creek.<\/p>\n K S Capital is lead manager of the float.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The post ASX Small Caps and IPO Weekly Wrap: InfoTech rules and Health Care drools on the ASX this week<\/a> appeared first on Stockhead<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOW THE WEEK SHOOK OUT<\/h2>\n
IPOs that happened<\/h2>\n
\nIPO:$5 million at 25 cents per share<\/p>\nIPOs we\u2019re (still) waiting for\u2026<\/h2>\n
\nIPO:$6 million at 20 cents\/share<\/p>\n
\nIPO:$6 million at 20 cents\/share<\/p>\n