Last Orders: Small caps gain but tech, BNPL selloff continues

Small caps have risen for a second day, this time outperforming their larger peers, but the tech selloff has continued for a sixth straight day.

The Small Ordinaries index of Australia’s 101st to 300th biggest companies gained 21.4 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 3,109.9. The ASX100 gained just 0.44 per cent, and the ASX200, 0.47 per cent.

The two days of gains have put the Small Ords up 38.2 points, meaning it still has a way to go to make up the 87.9 points it lost during the selloff Thursday and Friday.

Most sectors were up but tech collectively lost another 1.7 per cent, meaning the sector is now down 7.1 per cent since last Monday and down 13.4 per cent since the start of the year.

Afterpay (ASX:APT) finished down 3.6 per cent to $107.19, while Xero (ASX:XRO) dipped 3.8 per cent to $108.32. Zip (ASX:Z1P), officially classified as a financial stock, dropped 1.6 per cent to $8.78.

I think BNPL overextended sell-off. Time to start going long on yuge margin. See y’all on the other side. $APT $Z1P

— Whale Whisperer (@whaIewhispers) March 8, 2021

Utilities were the biggest gainers, up 1.2 per cent, followed by industrials, which rose 1.0 per cent.

Small-cap news

Redflow (ASX:RFX) gained 46.3 per cent to 7.9c after the battery company signed a $US1.2 million order to supply batteries to a bioenergy facility in California.

Digital Wine Venture (ASX:DW8) advanced 28.6 per cent to 9.9c after the wine e-commerce company announced that its Winedepot business shipped 9,494 orders in February, up 918 per cent from a year ago.

Immutep (ASX:IMM) gained 8.2 per cent to 33c, and announced after the market closed that it had been granted a second US patent for its lead drug candidate, eftilagimod alpha (“efti”) in combination with Keytruda or Opdivo, anti-cancer immunotherapies known as PD-1 pathway inhibitors.

Neurotech International (ASX:NTI) gained 1.6 per cent to 6.3c after the medical marijuana company announced a strategic partnership with CannaPacific to cultivate Neurotech’s unique Dolce blends of cannabis, which Neurotech hopes to use to treat autism.