It’s hump day. Markets are all over the shop. Inflation is surging.

Stockhead’s editorial policy places a strict cap on Bill Lawry quotes, but I digress; the tension, the drama, the buzz, the crowd…Merv, Merv, Merv! (Ed note: Merv Hughes reference not relevant).

Admittedly we’re not at the MCG, although the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney on Sunday provided a similar level of chaotic entertainment.

The chief protagonist was none other than tennis star Nick Kyrgios, who wasn’t in a giving mood at the celebrity basketball match to raise money for the Starlight Foundation.

One play that got the punters talking involved NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, who collected an entry pass in the post and attempted to give Kyrgios some Uncle Drew treatment with a casual turnaround jumper.

But the 26 year-old Canberran was having none of Dommy’s mid-range game, dispatching his shot towards the sidelines with a crude rejection.

He also blocked other shot attempts by Maria Thattil, Australia’s Miss Universe contestant, and finished up with 16 points…

Back to markets, where Australia’s inflation hawks were waiting with baseball bats to dispatch the ‘team transitory’ ball into the stands upon the release of Q1 GDP figures this morning.

They got their wish, with an annual headline print of 5.1% — the highest level in more than 20 years.

Trimmed mean inflation — the RBA’s preferred measure — also beat expectations with a quarterly gain of 1.4% and an annual gain of 3.7% (forecast 3.4%).

The general consensus among analysts in the immediate wake of those numbers is that a May rate hike by the RBA next week is now very much in play.

And as inflation fears continue to rattle global markets, US stocks tanked again overnight on the continued prospect of even faster Fed rate hikes.

How did the ASX respond to all of that? By acting really… weird.

The microcap Emerging Companies index promptly slumped by more than 3% at the open, before the entire market clawed back some ground.

This all happened before the inflation data, which stocks only had a muted reaction to.

After yesterday’s huge selloff, the iron ore majors have rebounded today while energy stocks also rose as oil prices stay elevated.

In line with the rising rates environment, ASX tech stocks are again underperforming while gold stocks are also under pressure.

Most other major sectors are also still in the red, but a short time ago the ASX 200 had responded from its early selloff to be trading around 0.7% lower.
 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for April 27 [intraday]:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

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For the first time in a long while, the resources winner’s list wasn’t populated by junior explorers flagging big new gold/lithium/rare earths/copper (you get the gist) finds.

Outside of minnow stocks ticking upwards, there was a sharp move higher on no news for BNPL player Splitit (ASX:SPT), which at ~25c is trading around 80% shy of the $1.47 level where co-founder Alon Feit sold 13,300,000 shares on-market in February 2021 for a nominal return of $19,551,000.

Among stocks with news, agri-tech company Bio-Gene (ASX:BGT) rose by around 15% following the release of its quarterly 4C trading update.

In mining, WA-based explorer Cullen Resources (ASX:CUL) rose by around 10% after results from its December drilling program revealed “high gold grades intersected across broad widths” at its Damsel prospect.
 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for April 27 [intraday]:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Wordpress Table Plugin

Among the laggards, oyster company East 33 (ASX:E33) is in the wars.

One day after releasing a quarterly trading update where it said inclement weather had adversely affected the production of Sydney rock oysters, the stock followed up yesterday’s 48.75% fall with another ~46% drop.

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