ASX Small Cap Lunch Wrap: Tech and Consumer stocks lead market sell-off; down, down, prices are down

It’s time for our medicine here in ASX200 land. Here, you hold down the patient:

The ASX200 at lunch on Thursday:

Yes. A chill has blown through Sydney and right across the benchmark local index which has fallen -0.6%, and has crumbled to a new low in about a year.

The cold winds arrived from Wall Street overnight as disappointing earnings reports and another feisty surge in US Treasury yields dominated proceedings.

At home, we’re all still a bit stung by Wednesday’s unpleasantness around inflation and what the new Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michele Bullock might do about it.

The stronger-than-expected Aussie inflation data has suddenly ushered in a new paradigm of crapness. Basically in one foul swoop rejigging the math and boosting the odds of further RBA squeezing.

About 10 hours before the data dropped Bullock pledged that her central bank ‘would not hesitate’ to raise its 4.1% cash rate if there were a ‘material’ bump to the inflation outlook.

Technology stocks are just the worst. AND they’re leading the top 200 into another session of misery.

Sounding off a few: Megaport (-14%%), Zero (-3%) and Wisetech Global (-2%).

The ASX200 at 1230 on Thursday

THE ASX SO FAR

The big banks, the heavyweight diggers, the Telcos, Industrials, Property stocks… anything consumer-related is down, down, prices are down.

Utilities, on the other hand, is killing it.

The ASX Sectors

NOT THE ASX

In New York, the S&P 500 fell by -1.43%, the blue chips Dow Jones index was down by -0.32%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged by -2.43% – its worst one-day drop in 2023.

Nasdaq was dragged down by Google parent Alphabet, which fell -9.5% after its Q3 cloud division results missed estimates. Overall however, Alphabet beat analysts’ expectations on revenue and earnings per share.

Apple and Amazon were also down ahead of their results, while Microsoft rose 4% in after its Q1 net income jumped 27%.

Meta meanwhile jumped 3% in extended trading following beats on top and bottom lines as its revenue jumped by 23% in Q3.

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for 25 October [intraday]:

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

Code	Company	Price	%	Volume	Market Cap
LSA	Lachlan Star	0.12	76%	1,037,018	$14,114,977
AZS	Azure Minerals	3.4	39%	24,914,889	$1,087,665,095
PNX	PNX Metals	0.004	33%	2,333,330	$16,141,874
LVE	Love Group Global	0.14	33%	90,342	$4,256,088
CRS	Caprice Resources	0.032	28%	147,124	$2,918,923
EDE	Eden Inv Ltd	0.0025	25%	1,000,000	$6,727,274
SEG	Sports Entertainment Group	0.22	22%	5,000	$47,000,165
HRE	Heavy Rare Earths	0.069	21%	148,343	$3,447,812
GMR	Golden Rim Resources	0.023	21%	1,063,627	$11,240,179
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.003	20%	3,500,034	$15,368,615
ROG	Red Sky Energy	0.006	20%	1,110,000	$26,511,136
ERW	Errawarra Resources	0.16	19%	2,451,864	$9,383,040
DVL	Dorsavi Ltd	0.013	18%	36,600	$6,123,278
MYE	Metarock Group Ltd	0.135	17%	111,439	$35,197,669
BNR	Bulletin Res Ltd	0.1225	17%	922,386	$30,827,066
BFC	Beston Global Ltd	0.007	17%	70,000	$11,982,281
NVQ	Noviqtech Limited	0.0035	17%	160,000	$3,714,586
VAL	Valor Resources Ltd	0.0035	17%	1,795,011	$11,620,004
ARV	Artemis Resources	0.023	15%	4,428,578	$31,498,367
AGR	Aguia Res Ltd	0.016	14%	100,000	$6,556,718
EFE	Eastern Resources	0.008	14%	240,823	$8,693,625
WA1	WA1 Resources	6.4	14%	981,994	$238,138,320
EPX	EP&T Global Limited	0.024	14%	25,686	$9,364,188
IMR	Imricor Medical Systems	0.575	14%	33,710	$85,303,658
DEL	Delorean Corporation	0.034	13%	186,856	$6,471,627

Wordpress Table Plugin

The saviour for optimists this morning has been the outrageous ongoing success of Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS) up sharply again before lunch.

According to this cracking piece of journalism from our Josh Chiat, AZS shareholders will net a 1430% if they take up a massive offer lobbed in by shareholder lithium monster, SQM.

The Chilean miner is offering $3.52 cash per share to take the 60% owner of the Andover lithium discovery in WA’s north off the market.

The project, 40% owned by legendary prospector Mark Creasy, has demonstrated its potential to become a tier-1 lithium discovery and Josh notes that SQM has given itself some protection against any Rinehart-like interference – nobody in lithium land would’ve missed the very public murder of Albemarle’s bid for WA’s next major lithium producer Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR).

Josh says SQM has acquired a blocking stake on market.

“Should the scheme fail, SQM will make a $3.50 per share off-market takeover offer, ensuring a raider would need to outbid SQM to get a slice of the pie.”

Up even higher than Azure on Thursday morning: ASX-listed Lachlan Star (ASX:LSA) , after DevEx Resources (ASX:DEV) informed the market operator that it’s now completed the sale of its portfolio of copper-gold exploration assets in the Lachlan Fold Belt to LSA.

In a great deal for DEV as well, the company gets 75,672,720 ordinary shares in LSA for a deemed value of $7.5 million (representing a holding of 36.46%) plus a 2% net smelter royalty.

DevEx’s Managing Director Brendan Bradley, and Executive Director Stacey Apostolou, will also join the board of LSA.

“The sale of our NSW copper-gold assets to Lachlan Star allows us to focus on the exciting emerging discoveries we have at the Nabarlek Uranium Project in the NT and Kennedy Ionic Clay-hosted REE Project in Queensland. The transaction will see the copper-gold portfolio become the key focus for Lachlan Star, with DevEx retaining exposure to the significant upside of these assets through our 36% shareholding,” Bradley said this morning.

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for 25 October [intraday]:

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

Code	Company	Price	%	Volume	Market Cap
MTH	Mithril Resources	0.001	-33%	26,315	$5,053,207
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.002	-33%	1,169,251	$18,442,338
CHM	Chimeric Therapeutic	0.03	-27%	3,112,828	$21,902,321
CCE	Carnegie Clean Energy	0.0015	-25%	122,614	$31,285,147
PAM	Pan Asia Metals	0.15	-25%	417,378	$31,764,287
ICN	Icon Energy Limited	0.008	-20%	52	$7,680,137
LBT	LBT Innovations	0.004	-20%	2,262,999	$1,779,502
BCA	Black Canyon Limited	0.125	-17%	4,452	$9,846,657
ICI	Icandy Interactive	0.03	-17%	3,968,053	$48,319,405
AQD	Ausquest Limited	0.011	-15%	710,182	$10,726,940
PFE	Pantera Minerals	0.057	-15%	16,875	$6,567,761
M2R	Miramar	0.029	-15%	29,791	$5,061,564
AYT	Austin Metals Ltd	0.006	-14%	408,050	$7,111,123
DES	Desoto Resources	0.12	-14%	113,333	$8,389,710
RNO	Rhinomed Ltd	0.03	-14%	2,500	$10,000,189
EOL	Energy One Limited	4.29	-14%	16,501	$150,132,925
XRG	Xreality Group Ltd	0.037	-14%	358,121	$19,350,483
NWF	Newfield Resources	0.13	-13%	50,000	$132,307,086
DY6	Dy6 Metalsltd	0.1	-13%	6,238	$4,434,687
OD6	Od6 Metals	0.17	-13%	158,811	$10,728,022
1AG	Alterra Limited	0.007	-13%	517,999	$5,572,420
VAL	Valor Resources Ltd	0.0035	-13%	256,000	$15,493,339
M2M	Mt Malcolm Mines	0.022	-12%	183,790	$2,558,588
AHI	Advanced Health	0.12	-11%	192,911	$29,390,036
CCO	The Calmer Co International	0.004	-11%	5,838,609	$3,677,037