For the two million people of Perth and its surrounds, Sunday marked a return to queuing for toilet paper and COVID-19 tests while wearing face masks.

The WA capital is experiencing COVID-19 social restrictions for the first time since March 2020, while the city and adjacent areas go into a week-long lockdown.

WA’s premier Mark McGowan took the drastic step of ordering the lockdown from Sunday evening to Friday evening after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive for the virus.

The good news is that WA’s mining industry is generally unaffected by the restriction measures as much of it is located outside the lockdown area.

WA’s Police Commissioner has deemed the mining industry an essential service allowing some travel by mining industry personnel in the course of normal operations.

Supermarkets and pharmacies started to fill up shortly after the WA Premier announced the lockdown measures at Sunday lunchtime in Perth.

And, unsurprisingly, toilet paper was again a favourite target for shoppers seeking to stock up with supplies for the coming week.

Lunch wrap
Supermarket stocks of toilet paper started to run out as WA went into a week-long lockdown. Image: ABC news

 

To markets:

At lunch time in Sydney, the broad ASX All Ordinaries index staged a strong recovery, moving back to its Friday close of 6,870 points, after a drop of 0.8 per cent.

The ASX 200 made a similar manoeuvre, and was marginally in the green at 6,613 points, up 8.5 points on day.

The iron ore price is slightly off from its recent nine-year high and was trading at a respectable $US159 per tonne, Friday.

Gold’s price was steady in early Monday trade at $US1,852 per ounce ($2,428/oz), while silver touched a seven-year high of $US28.33 per ounce ($37.15/oz).

 

WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Monday February 1:

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

Stocks highlighted in yellow made market moving announcements
Code Name Price % Change Volume Market Cap
ONE Oneview Healthcare 0.092 119 16380770 $ 16,485,541.63
MTB Mount Burgess Mining 0.0135 50 23413336 $ 5,941,339.19
ANW Aus Tin Mining 0.0015 50 2295003 $ 7,635,019.31
BAS Bass Oil Ltd 0.0015 50 2520000 $ 3,342,140.10
CLZ Classic Min Ltd 0.0015 50 17427500 $ 25,552,452.46
ECT Env Clean Tech Ltd. 0.0015 50 1975000 $ 9,601,032.79
TMZ Thomson Res Ltd 0.18 38 33992444 $ 40,948,478.22
GME GME Resources Ltd 0.09 32 6293118 $ 37,866,951.24
SVL Silver Mines Limited 0.32 31 49612207 $ 254,973,835.59
RDM Red Metal Limited 0.145 26 3778442 $ 28,243,050.45
EQE Equus Mining Ltd 0.02 25 150430868 $ 29,052,363.30
ROG Red Sky Energy. 0.0025 25 506667 $ 11,503,555.49
WOO Wooboard Tech Ltd 0.0025 25 5850000 $ 4,762,133.68
ARD Argent Minerals 0.071 25 23866883 $ 49,883,333.63
PNX PNX Metals Limited 0.0085 21 48906339 $ 25,565,354.58
IVR Investigator Res Ltd 0.094 21 32069202 $ 102,636,355.54
EN1 Engage:Bdr Limited 0.006 20 7240001 $ 11,853,722.74
GED Golden Deeps 0.012 20 35629783 $ 7,746,133.45
MKR Manuka Resources. 0.46 19 3071100 $ 35,598,017.07
WRM White Rock Min Ltd 0.6 18 603408 $ 37,078,036.83
88E 88 Energy Ltd 0.0105 17 77533773 $ 95,954,313.88
FGO Fargo Enterprises 0.0035 17 1247362 $ 4,150,148.46
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Healthcare software company Oneview Healthcare (ASX:ONE) was the ASX’s top gainer Monday, rising more than 170 per cent in early trading.

The health tech stock announced a US distribution deal with Korean tech company Samsung for its bedside digital services for patients, including its Cloud Start product.

Oneview Healthcare’s software can be rapidly deployed to support COVID-19 patients or as a platform for bedside digital services and runs exclusively on Samsung tablets.

“Our move to the cloud accelerates speed to market and opens new possibilities for distribution, making it faster, easier and lower cost for end customers to benefit from the digital platform at the bedside,” chief executive, James Fitter, said.

Aus Tin Mining (ASX:ANW) headed higher in ASX trade as global tin prices are at their strongest since mid-2014, trading at $US23,657 per tonne on record low stocks.

The explorer recently completed test work on part of its Taronga tin project in NSW with “highly encouraging results”, it said in an update Friday.

Pure play silver exploration company Silver Mines (ASX:SVL) went up dramatically early Monday, which some in the market are attributing to the wallstreetbets effect.

Traders on the bulletin board have highlighted the silver market as their next target following trading success with the US games retailer GameStop last week.

Silver Mines unveiled impressive drilling results for its Bowdens silver project in NSW late last week, that included 26.1m at 252 grams per tonne silver equivalent from 229m.

The company lays claim to Bowdens as the largest silver deposit in Australia on which a considerable body of high-quality technical work has been completed.

Other silver stocks such as Manuka Resources (ASX:MKR) and Investigator Resources (ASX:IVR) with its Paris project in South Australia, also made significant gains, Monday.

Manuka Resources announced Monday an upgrade to the resource estimate for its Mt Boppy gold deposit in NSW, including a 23 per cent increase in its contained ounces.

LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Monday February 1:

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

Stocks highlighted in yellow made market moving announcements
Code Name Price % Change Volume Market Cap
APG Austpac Resources NL 0.001 -50 550000 $ 6,331,325.91
MRQ Mrg Metals Limited 0.012 -29 41927206 $ 23,283,673.93
ALT Analytica Limited 0.003 -25 10000 $ 14,078,449.33
UUV UUV Aquabotix Ltd 0.0015 -25 1678350 $ 4,776,749.62
ERG Eneco Refresh Ltd 0.041 -24 112483 $ 14,707,350.74
DTR Dateline Resources 0.002 -20 350200 $ 20,525,195.19
FRX Flexiroam Limited 0.03 -19 23260606 $ 18,523,940.11
OEC Orbital Corp Limited 0.915 -19 337608 $ 87,366,123.00
CG1 Carbonxt Group 0.205 -18 1351919 $ 35,454,944.00
RNE Renu Energy Ltd 0.055 -18 542603 $ 7,116,092.85
MYL Myanmar Metals 0.07 -18 11029885 $ 161,594,316.00
APV Appsvill 0.1 -17 894275 $ 9,946,804.80
CCE Carnegie Cln Energy 0.0025 -17 37353937 $ 34,596,205.67
KNM Kneomedia Limited 0.016 -16 11754878 $ 18,776,686.54
INP Incentiapay Ltd 0.027 -16 73888 $ 22,983,348.86
TYM Tymlez Group 0.038 -16 2918789 $ 13,141,659.20
PWN Parkway Minls NL 0.017 -15 16946334 $ 38,015,079.66
QXR Qx Resources Limited 0.017 -15 1673562 $ 10,675,246.44
RLC Reedy Lagoon Corp. 0.017 -15 6637373 $ 9,394,675.68
RDN Raiden Resources Ltd 0.023 -15 3625524 $ 23,181,745.89
WOR Worley Limited 9.75 -15 2305450 $ 5,962,080,831.76
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The largest faller in Monday early trade was MRG Metals (ASX:MRQ) with a 50 per cent decline at one stage, despite raising $2.1m in a share placement to sophisticated and professional investors.

The capital raised is destined to MRG Metals’ heavy mineral sands projects in the east African country of Mozambique for initial drilling and exploration work.

“We are pleased to have received such strong support to fund our extended exploration program at our wholly owned Marao, Marruca and Corridor projects,” chairman Andrew Van Der Zwan said.