Small caps have gotten off the month of May on the wrong foot, declining even as their larger peers advance.

The Small Ordinaries was down 0.5 per cent at lunchtime, while the ASX200 was flat and the ASX20 was up 0.32 per cent.

Sectors were mixed at midday, with financials, telecom and property advancing and the other eight official sectors declining. Tech was the biggest laggard, dropping 1.7 per cent, while financials the best gainer, up 1.3 per cent.

WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX stocks this morning:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

Taruga Minerals (ASX:TAR) was the best performer, up 86 per cent to 11c after the junior explorer announced a high-grade copper discovery at its Mt Craig Project in Southern Australia. All 30 drillholes intercepted visible mineralisation, the company said.

Xstate Resources (ASX:XST) was up 30 per cent to 0.65c after the energy explorer announced flow test results from its onshore well in the northern Sacramento basin in California, USA.

Alkane Resources (ASX:ALK) was up 19.7 per cent to 88c after announcing more drilling results at its Boda copper-gold prospect in central NSW.

Losers

Wordpress Table Plugin