May. Let’s start with US markets.

Because May in the US started with the Dow making its biggest gain since 2020, followed within 24 hours by its biggest loss in 2022, perfectly summing up what kind of month May was to become.

The US Fed raised interest rates by 0.50%, the biggest single hit since 2000, helping extend the April-long losing streak for another three weeks. It finally broke for the last week, so the bear market was put on hold. But the S&P 500 ended May down `14% from its January high.

May market news in the States was dominated by economic data and earnings calls roundly summarised as “worse than expected”. SNAP – worst month on record, down 50%. Walmart – biggest drop since 1987. Target – 25% drop. Something about supply chains, something about inflation.

China started making noises about ending a two-month Covid lockdown. The Shanghai government rolled out as many as 50 stimulus measures to restart the local economy – the Action Plan to Accelerate Recovery and Revitalization of the Economy. That might help allay a little of the alarm Chinese Premier Li Keqiang caused last week with a mildly out-of-step call that China’s economy was facing “an even greater challenge than at the start of the pandemic in 2020”.

The ASX had its worst monthly decline since January, down 3% overall. Tech and emerging companies were the main drags, down 6% and 7.6% respectively for the month.

The ASX also got a new index. The AgBiz index will begin quotation as a real-time index on July 1. Its aim – to unite “companies whose principal business activity involves the creation of agricultural products, or the production of commodities used in those products”.

Food. It’s becoming kind of a big deal.

And finally, house prices took a tumble. It wasn’t huge – CoreLogic and REA’s PropTrack both had the national average down 0.1 per cent – but it’s the first in 20 months. Sydney dropped 1.0%; Melbourne 0.7%. Cash rate increases work, it seems.

Oh yeah, we got a new government. What a time to be in charge of making sure everyone’s being fiscally responsible.

It all sounds a bit grim… but let’s pretend it isn’t happening and focus on the positives.

Show Me the ASX Small Caps Winners!

(Stocks highlighted in yellow rose after making announcements during the trading day).

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

CODE COMPANY PRICE 1 MONTH RETURN % MARKET CAP
GAL Galileo Mining Ltd 1.445 557% $258,377,936
TYX Tyranna Res Ltd 0.019 245% $29,114,853
CNJ Conico Ltd 0.036 200% $48,897,679
RMI Resource Mining Corp 0.15 194% $60,850,962
LIN Lindian Resources 0.086 177% $68,216,341
AR1 Austral Resources 0.5 144% $122,606,795
DAF Discovery Alaska Ltd 0.075 114% $16,742,602
RAS Ragusa Minerals Ltd 0.155 74% $19,476,964
MYD Mydeal.Com.Au 1.015 69% $262,709,716
OKU Oklo Resources Ltd 0.145 69% $73,151,989
BBX BBX Minerals Ltd 0.19 65% $87,404,080
E33 East 33 Limited. 0.065 63% $17,482,498
MTC Metalstech Ltd 0.385 60% $64,165,867
GSR Greenstone Resources 0.048 52% $44,709,777
MEK Meeka Gold Limited 0.07 52% $64,426,969
HAV Havilah Resources 0.265 51% $82,098,791
RFX Redflow Limited 0.057 50% $81,986,661
RKN Reckon Limited 1.22 47% $138,219,695
QGL Quantum Graphite 0.45 45% $131,850,000
TIG Tigers Realm Coal 0.023 44% $300,534,154
BEZ Besragoldinc 0.079 44% $13,576,147
ASR Asra Minerals Ltd 0.04 43% $53,599,033
AGR Aguia Res Ltd 0.074 42% $29,592,385
BUB Bubs Aust Ltd 0.62 41% $379,920,860
UBN Urbanise.Com Ltd 0.64 41% $36,169,011
IFM Infomedia Ltd 1.71 36% $642,553,603
EM2 Eagle Mountain 0.46 35% $123,065,244
PBX Pacific Bauxite NL 0.135 35% $5,559,638
OPT Opthea Limited 1.365 34% $480,688,220
TER Terracom Ltd 0.765 34% $576,509,837
RXH Rewardle Holding Ltd 0.012 33% $6,315,858
VMG VDM Group Limited 0.002 33% $13,855,322
PTX Prescient Ltd 0.17 31% $111,186,213
PNV Polynovo Limited 1.235 30% $817,184,734
IND Industrialminerals 0.305 30% $8,967,000
AZI Altamin Limited 0.097 29% $37,996,525
ESR Estrella Res Ltd 0.027 29% $32,418,402
BBL Brisbane Broncos 1 28% $98,040,631
DRX Diatreme Resources 0.032 28% $97,221,844
B4P Beforepay Group 0.51 26% $17,261,709
FRM Farm Pride Foods 0.17 26% $9,380,630
AVR Anteris Technologies 21.3 25% $292,565,852
BFC Beston Global Ltd 0.075 25% $64,784,956
OSM Osmond Resources 0.26 24% $7,306,000
OZZ OZZ Resources 0.13 24% $4,342,796
SHE Stonehorse Energy Lt 0.021 24% $14,373,137
TAS Tasman Resources Ltd 0.021 24% $14,094,198
IMM Immutep Ltd 0.42 24% $363,820,722
OZM Ozaurum Resources 0.185 23% $10,584,960
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There’s only one story in ASX Small Caps Land in May, so let’s get through it. It’s Galileo (ASX:GAL), up 557%.

By all reports, he knew his way around a telescope, but even Galileo would have struggled to spot the ASX explorer that took his name at the stratospheric heights it soared to in May.

Let’s lay out one of the more remarkable months for an ASX small cap so far this year:

May 4: The carnival begins with an announcement it had hit “nickel and copper sulphides at the company’s 100% owned Norseman project in WA.

“Highly encouraging” Galileo’s MD Brad Underwood said. Encouraging enough for shareholders to pick it up off a 20c mat where it had been hovering for, ooh, the better part of a decade.

May 9. They didn’t get long to pile in, because GAL went into a Trading Halt. Excite!

May 11: Boom. Yeah, it’s a biggie. The discovery hole returns 33m @ 2g/t 3E (1.64 g/t palladium, 0.28 g/t platinum, 0.09 g/t gold), 0.32% copper & 0.30% nickel from 144m. Underwood says “every drillhole” intersects mineralisation.

There’s talk of geological similarities to South Africa’s colossal ‘Platreef’ palladium-platinum-gold-rhodium-copper-nickel deposits.

Share price heads to 53 cents.

Oh, and reports in most media about the hit casually drop that GAL is a Mark Creasy-backed venture (24.6%, and now several million dollars richer). Buckle up.

And that’s just from 33m, with 5km of untested ground to cover – including the actual target zone:

This is what kicking butt looks like. Image provided

May 12: An investor presentation the following day – handy – helps shares rise to 66 cents. More than 240% in a week.

May 16: Even at 58 cents, GAL was irresistible to Creasy. It’s announced he dropped another $1.75m into the kitty. As it hits 85 cents on that news alone, he’s basically writing million-dollar cheques to himself at this point.

The Creasy Rush is on. Within four days, GAL is at $1.18.

May 24: We’re back down to 94 cents as the too-good-to-be-True Believers exit. Oh dear.

May 25: Trading Halt #2.

May 26: “Discovery confirmed!” says GAL. More highlights with big numbers in them, and news drilling’s about to start on the the actual thick and high grade stuff next week. Share price hits $1.41.

Creasy’s $1.75m investment 12 days ago alone is worth $4.25m now. And it was just a 2% top-up on his 24% stake.

But wait, there’s more…

May 27: Rhodium struck. Assays from the Norseman project are now confirming the presence of rhodium. It’s only one of the rarest and most valuable precious metals in the world, currently selling for $US15,500/oz.

Most global rhodium production is used in catalytic convertors, which control emissions in ICE and hybrid vehicles.

GAL hits its high of $1.91. About 800pc on its price three weeks earlier. Creasy’s stake has roughly popped from $9m to somewhere north of $70m. What a ride.

Galileo finishes the month at $1.44, after some of the more giddy participants exited the rollercoaster.

Breathtaking stuff.

 

Best of the rest

We’d be remiss not to mention Conico Resources (ASX:CNJ) among all of this. It was, after all, up a tidy 200% in May.

As pointed out by Stockhead regular Guy Le Page, prospective horizons from GAL “appear to trend on to ground held by the Mt Thirsty Joint Venture”.

That JV is a 50% Conico, 50% Greenstone Resources (ASX:GSR) project. And “appear to trend on to ground” is a roundabout way of hailing that a bit of the old “nearology” could be in play.

CNJ enjoyed the piggyback most, up 200% for the month to 0.034 cents. As did Le Page, the famed geologist and stockbroker who also holds – along with a deadlift world record – directorship of and shares in Conico.

Tyranna Resources (ASX:TYX) actually outshone even CNJ, up 245% in May.

Look, it’s a tiddler, but everyone starts somewhere. And in May, Tyranna Resources ventured into Africa to secure a lithium exploration project in Angola.

Two weeks after announcing that, it released assays of historical rock-chip sampling completed in 2019 and 2021 of pegmatites that showed 7.49% Li2O from high purity spodumene. Solid enough to spark a flame under its 0.009c share price. (That’s less than a cent, i.e. a proper, old-fashioned penny stock.)

Somebody noticed. The next day, TYX cracked the cent mark and beyond, soaring to 2.2 cents.

It’s very early days though. The company noted “only 16 of the estimated 600 (identified) pegmatites” had been sampled so far, and lithium mineralisation confirmed at 6 of those. Still, it helps when you’re basically tripping over the stuff:

Picture: Tyranna Resources

A 245% growth for the month though is a promising start. And it’s still going cheap…

Happiest TYX holder? CPS Capital Group founder and managing director Jason Peterson, who on May 17 had increased his holdings from 9.99% to 11.52%.

Outside of resources, the action was slim. Non-existent, actually, which should come as no surprise if you’d paid attention to the sector breakdowns earlier.

It was a good month to get acquired. MyDeal (ASX:MYD) shares rose 56% immediately on news Woolworths wanted to acquire an 80% controlling interest in the online retail marketplace.

B2Gold put in a bid for Mali gold explorer Oklo (ASX:OKU) for a 127% premium to its closing price, and premium to any closing share price over the past 12 months. (Run, you fools!)

And milk is back. For unfortunate reasons, with apologies to any US parents whose poor wee one was affected by formula made in Abbott Laboratories, which was associated with bacterial infections in infants. Cue infant formula shortage, and US President Joe Biden making ASX market-moving announcements on Twitter before the official release of such:

That’s a 41% share price rise for Bubs (ASX:BUB) in May, thank you very much.

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