On Stockhead today, Australia’s now in the silica sands race, the time The Secret Broker rode the real franking credits wave, and all you need to know about investing in small cap aviation stocks.

But first, here’s what you need to know before markets open.

The day ahead in data

Australia has April housing finance data from the ABS, along with the Ai Group’s construction index for May.

Looking abroad, the main event will be US employment numbers on Friday night. The median forecast is for monthly jobs growth of 190,000, leaving the US unemployment rate at a 50-year low of 3.6 per cent.

Company news

The following companies are expected to come out of a trading halt or voluntary suspension in the next two trading sessions:

Friday:

E2 Metals (ASX: E2M) – capital raising
Big Star Energy (ASX: BNL) – capital raising
Pacific Bauxite (ASX: PBX) – board changes
Machahon Holdings (ASX: MAH) – material contract negotiation

Tuesday:

TNG (ASX: TNG) – capital raising
Benetic Biopharma (ASX: BLT) – contract update
My Fiziq (ASX: MYQ) – commercial partnership
Emerge Gaming (ASX: EM1) – partnership announcement

Commodities

Gold: $US1,332.22 ($1,909.74) +0.39%

Silver: $US14.85 +0.55%

Oil (Brent): $US62.15 +2.72%

Oil (WTI): $US53.07 +2.86%

Coal: $US74.97 +0.97%

Iron ore 62pc fe: $US98.32 -0.07%

AUD/USD: $US0.6976

What got you talking yesterday

Over on the Stockhead Facebook forum, group member Kevin Sharpe got into an interesting discussion with our senior journalist Rachel Williamson about shares coming out of escrow. Read their exchange here.

These were the five most-discussed stocks on trading gossip forum HotCopper at close on Friday:

Yesterday’s winners

Topping the boards yesterday was mining minnow Renegade Exploration (ASX: RNX), which posted a 50 per cent rise to 0.3 cents on no news.

Highfield Resources (ASX: HFR) also performed strongly, after going into a trading halt the previous day before announcing it had received environmental approval from the Spanish government to proceed with its Muga potash project — a development that was around four years in the making.

Among the early movers, Connected IO (ASX: CIO) bolted out of the gate to briefly double after the opening bell, but by the time markets closed it had given up those gains to close flat for the session at two cents per share.

Ticker Name Price ($) % Chg Market cap
RNX Renegade Exploration Ltd 0.003 50.00% $2.1M
HFR Highfield Resources Ltd 0.92 35.29% $303.2M
AAJ Aruma Resources Ltd 0.004 33.33% $2.5M
AUL Austar Gold Ltd 0.004 33.33% $13.6M
IAM Intiger Group Ltd 0.004 33.33% $3.4M
MLS Metals Australia Ltd 0.002 33.33% $5.9M
SMI Santana Minerals Ltd 0.002 33.33% $2.7M
RAN Range International Ltd 0.03 29.17% $6.2M
SOP Synertec Corp Ltd 0.04 25.71% $9.7M
SHH Shree Minerals Ltd 0.075 25.00% $4.6M
BLK Blackham Resources Ltd 0.01 25.00% $31.0M
GBZ GBM Resources Ltd 0.005 25.00% $5.5M
TRL Tanga Resources Ltd 0.025 25.00% $3.2M
JXT Jaxsta Ltd 0.29 20.83% $67.1M
PPK PPK Group Ltd 2.65 20.45% $215.7M
AHL AHAlife Holdings Ltd 0.006 20.00% $4.8M
ANW Aus Tin Mining Ltd 0.012 20.00% $25.8M
FNT Frontier Resources Ltd 0.012 20.00% $5.9M
MRV Moreton Resources Ltd 0.006 20.00% $18.6M
QFY Quantify Technology Holdings Ltd 0.006 20.00% $5.9M
TNY Tinybeans Group Pty Ltd 1.32 20.00% $43.6M
AX8 Accelerate Resources Ltd 0.04 20.00% $1.7M
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Yesterday’s losers

There were no major standout among the laggards yesterday, with the usual round of small-cap minnows losing ground in a low-liquidity trading environment.

Ticker Company Price ($) % Chg Market cap
VPR Volt Power Group Ltd 0.001 -33.33% $8.2M
GGX Gas2Grid Ltd 0.002 -33.33% $3.5M
DDD 3D Resources Ltd 0.001 -33.33% $1.1M
TMZ Thomson Resources Ltd 0.03 -25.71% $2.9M
MDX Mindax Ltd 0.003 -25.00% $2.8M
EQE Equus Mining Ltd 0.006 -25.00% $5.4M
RDG Resource Development Group Ltd 0.02 -23.81% $10.1M
ARX Arc Exploration Ltd 0.15 -21.05% $3.8M
VIC Victory Mines Ltd 0.002 -20.00% $2.7M
UNL United Networks Ltd 0.013 -18.75% $1.6M
MYQ MyFiziq Ltd 0.16 -17.95% $14.5M
TBL Tambla Ltd 0.5 -16.67% $9.9M
TPD Talon Petroleum Ltd 0.0025 -16.67% $4.4M
PNX PNX METALS Ltd 0.005 -16.67% $12.2M
EPM Eclipse Uranium Ltd 0.0025 -16.67% $2.9M
E2E Eon NRG Ltd 0.005 -16.67% $3.8M
ARD Argent Minerals Ltd 0.01 -16.67% $5.4M
CXU Cauldron Energy Ltd 0.02 -15.00% $5.6M
DCN Dacian Gold Ltd 0.44 -14.56% $99.3M
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