Lunchtime ASX small cap wrap: Who’s having an existential crisis today?

Pixar’s new trailer for Toy Story 4 is full of enjoyable themes like abandonment, existential dread, and very creepy dolls.

Like this:

Old dolls are new clowns. pic: Toy Story 4

Moving on.

In more businessy news, British PM Theresa May is expected to plead for a Brexit extension this week.

US-China trade talks continue, but the outlook is mixed ; Bloomberg says China is digging in against US demands, but Wall Street Journal reckons a deal between the world’s two largest economies is in its final stages.

The spot gold price was near US$1,306 an ounce in late US trade.

Those investors backing Aussie gold producers are laughing all the way to the bank right now — that’s $1850 per ounce in the local currency.

Going prospecting never looked so lucrative.

Following a strong surge from late December through to late February, the ASX Small Ords has been rumbling along in first gear.

Today, the index is down 0.53 per cent to 2775 point at 12pm EST.

Here’s the state of play at lunch Wednesday March 20:

WINNERS

Funtasic puts the ‘(ASX:FUN)’ in our lunchtime wrap — up 155 per cent in morning trade on no apparent news.

But wait – last year the company made a deal to distribute Toy Story 4 toys in Australia and New Zealand ahead of the movie’s release in June 2019.

It’s amazing how things come together.

Coal miner Paringa Resources (ASX:PNL) was up 23 per cent to 16c after securing a $US56 million loan to accelerate production at its Poplar grove mine in Kentucky.

It’s a step in the right direction, but Paringa still has some work to do if it wants to get back to those year-high prices of around 36c a share.

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm on Wednesday, March 20:

ASX Code	Name	Last Price	Percentage Change	Market Cap	Volume
BAS	Bass Oil	0.003	50%	$7,800,000	300.0k
DTR	Dateline Resources	0.003	50%	$22,900,000	2.1M
PNN	PepinNini Lithium	0.004	33%	$3,700,000	210.0k
FRX	Flexiroam	0.05	25%	$8,900,000	6.0k
MNC	Metminco	0.003	25%	$3,000,000	1.0M
PNL	Paringa Resources	0.16	23%	$71,000,000	1.4M
GOO	Gooroo Ventures	0.06	23%	$6,700,000	227.6k
DTM	Dart Mining	0.006	20%	$5,600,000	1.0M
GLN	Galan Lithium	0.31	19%	$30,000,000	1.1M
JPR	Jupiter Energy	0.05	18%	$6,900,000	40.1k
SPX	Spectrum Metals	0.015	15%	$15,800,000	40.8M
RBR	RBR Group	0.023	15%	$16,400,000	4.4M
FUN	Funtastic	0.05	155	$12,800,000	15.9k
FAU	First Au	0.02	14%	$6,300,000	110.0k
ARD	Argent Minerals	0.016	14%	$8,100,000	62.5k
HGM	High Grade Metals	0.008	15%	$3,600,000	125.0k
KEY	Key Petroleum	0.008	14%	$11,300,000	600.0k
TV2	TV2U International	0.008	14%	$17,300,000	1.7M
FFG	Fatfish Blockchain	0.018	20%	$9,600,000	2.8M
PKO	Peako	0.018	13%	$1,300,000	100.0k

LOSERS

On no news, European Lithium (ASX:EUR) was down 22 per cent to 14c; Six Sigma Metals (ASX:S16) fell 25 per cent to 0.3c; and Shareroot (ASX:SRO) dropped 33 per cent to 0.1c.

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm on Wednesday, March 20:

ASX Code	Name	Last Price	Percentage Change	Market Cap	Volume
ECX	Eclipx Group	0.94	-50%	$603,000,000	2.3M
SRO	Shareroot	0.001	-33%	$1,600,000	52.0k
APG	Austpac Resources	0.001	-33%	$2,100,000	2.7M
SL1	Symbol Mining	0.013	-32%	$7,600,000	1.6M
SI6	Six Sigma Metals	0.003	-25%	$1,400,000	1.5M
GLA	Gladiator Resources	0.002	-25%	$2,200,000	1.4M
EUR	European Lithium	0.14	-22%	$77,500,000	1.3M
OEX	Oilex	0.004	-20%	$10,300,000	317.5k
MPR	MPower Group	0.021	-19%	$3,700,000	800.0k
ODM	Odin Metals	0.12	-18%	$17,700,000	360.0k
WCN	White Cliff Minerals	0.005	-17%	$2,400,000	20.4k
RIM	Rimfire Pacific Mining	0.005	-17%	$5,300,000	85.0k
ADN	Andromeda Metals	0.005	-17%	$6,800,000	3.8M
1ST	1st Group	0.05	-15%	$14,900,000	569.9k
MEY	Marenica Energy	0.09	-15%	$6,500,000	837
VAN	Vango Mining	0.12	-14%	$71,600,000	504.5k
MSE	Metalsearch	0.006	-14%	$2,900,000	1.9M
FTT	Factor Therapeutics	0.003	-14%	$3,100,000	23.1k