Small caps had clawed back some of Friday’s losses at noon, but were lagging their larger peers following an announcement that Australia’s central bank would buy double the number of bonds it purchases as part of its quantitative easing program.

The Small Ordinaries index was up 27.2 points, or 0.87 per cent, at lunchtime, after falling 49.6 points, or 1.56 per cent, on Friday.

The Emerging Companies micro-cap index was up just 0.34 per cent after dropping 1.74 per cent on Friday.

The ASX200 meanwhile was up 101.6 points, or 1.52 per cent, after the Reserve Bank of Australia offered to buy $4 billion of longer-dated bonds, double the normal amount, in an attempt to keep rising bond yields down. Yields soared last week as investors left the safety of bonds for shares, putting pressure on risk assets such as tech shares.

Tech was the second-biggest gainer at lunchtime, collectively rising 3.5 per cent, while the property sector had gained 3.8 per cent.

Every sector was higher except for materials, which had fallen 0.6 per cent.

All the major buy now, pay later companies were up, with Afterpay (ASX:APT) rising 5.6 per cent to $126.25 and Zip Co (ASX:Z1P) advancing 6.4 per cent to $11.06.

WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX stocks this morning.

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Stocks highlighted in yellow have made market-moving announcements
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AJ Lucas (ASX:AJL) has been the biggest gainer, its shares trading as high as 12c after the oil and gas explorer announced it had swung to a $9.9 million half-year profit, compared to a $10.3 million loss a year ago.

Aus Tin Mining (ASX:ANW) was up 50 per cent to 42.5c after raising $2 million in an placement to professional and sophisticated investors.

YPB Group (ASX:YPB) was also gaining on the back of a capital raising, this one for $750,000. Shares in the product authentication company were up 50c to 0.25c.

LOSERS

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Weststar Industrial (ASX:WSI) was down 22 per cent to 1.6c after the engineering, construction and mining contractor announced a $577,257 loss, compared to a $495,616 profit a year ago.

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