Local markets are higher on Tuesday, as ASX investors continue to shrug off geopolitical risk with steady gains seen across the board.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has included plenty of reported attempts at cyber warfare, with noted hacking group Anonymous claiming to be targeting Russian websites.

But on a hacking story of a different kind, US$600bn tech giant Nvidia apparently got some revenge of its own on a group of hackers that stole more than 1 terabyte of the company’s data.

The hacking group — LAPSU$ — indicated that the global chip maker had responded by hacking them back — encrypting all the stolen data and breaching their system with ransomware.

However, LAPSU$ responded by claiming it had a backup and overnight, reports showed the group released what it claimed was a 20GB cache of Nvidia data.

Back on domestic markets, healthy risk appetite was shown by the fact that the composite microcap Emerging Companies index outperformed the ASX 200 with a gain of more than 2%.

Another risk benchmark — ASX tech stocks — are also comfortably outperforming with the ASX 200 IT index up by more than 5% in morning trade.

Also in the realm of high-beta risk barometers, Bitcoin is surging with a stomping overnight rally that has seen it climb back above US$43,000 for the first time in two weeks.

While investors grapple with the ongoing military escalation in Ukraine, they may also be assessing what that means for interest rates in a year where financial conditions are expected to tighten considerably.

On that front, economists are extra-excited about the RBA meeting scheduled for this afternoon (2:30pm EST). Get the full rundown here.

Broadly speaking, it’s calm in Asian trade with gold holding at just above US$1,900/oz, Brent crude oil just shy of US$100/b and the AUD little-changed at just above US72c.

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for March 1 [intraday]:

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Code Company Price % Market Cap
LKO Lakes Blue Energy 0.0015 50.0% $44,467,832
GTG Genetic Technologies 0.0055 37.5% $36,935,861
NGY Nuenergy Gas Ltd 0.03 36.4% $32,581,021
TIG Tigers Realm Coal 0.015 25.0% $156,800,428
ADY Admiralty Resources. 0.02 25.0% $20,857,266
MRD Mount Ridley Mines 0.01 25.0% $45,940,679
PCL Pancontinental Energ 0.005 25.0% $28,616,891
AVH Avita Medical 3.145 22.4% $181,922,770
RLC Reedy Lagoon Corp. 0.029 20.8% $13,148,574
VMY Vimy Resources Ltd 0.215 19.4% $190,335,839
NXG Nexgenenergycanada 6.99 18.5% $60,360,157
OKR Okapi Resources 0.3 17.6% $29,857,739
EME Energy Metals Ltd 0.205 17.1% $36,694,580
QXR Qx Resources Limited 0.048 17.1% $29,350,355
URF Us Masters Res Fund 0.38 16.9% $130,311,899
BNR Bulletin Res Ltd 0.14 16.7% $34,267,189
MEB Medibio Limited 0.0035 16.7% $6,753,301
SGC Sacgasco Ltd 0.028 16.7% $11,619,778
SPN Sparc Tech Ltd 0.935 16.1% $54,241,874
IS3 I Synergy Group Ltd 0.3 15.4% $47,763,453
QPM Queensland Pacific 0.15 15.4% $200,604,707
MEM Memphasys Ltd 0.069 15.0% $47,530,700
IXU Ixup Limited 0.115 15.0% $90,207,603
TI1 Tombador Iron 0.039 14.7% $38,010,311
AXP AXP Energy Ltd 0.008 14.3% $40,685,265
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Among stocks with news, clinical stage regenerative medicine company AVITA Medical (ASX:AVH) outperformed following the release of its annual report.

AVITA flagged annual revenue forecasts of $30m for the year ahead, which represents “a 20% increase year-over-year”.

Shares in AVITA jumped sharply in February after it announced FDA approval of the premarket approval application supplement for its RECELL autologous cell harvesting device.

That positions the company very well for broader commercial expansion… “in the second half of 2023 following anticipated FDA approval”, AVH said.

In resources, Tombador Iron (ASX:TI1) led the way after flagging the results of a pre-feasibility study which showed a maiden iron ore reserve of 5.59 million tonnes at above-average grades of 65.5%Fe at its iron ore project in Bahia State, Brazi.

The resources “underpins 100% of the forecasted annual production of 1.2 million tonnes for 5 years” in the PFS, which was calculated on an assumed iron ore price of US$100.31 per tonne.

Get the full resources wrap here.

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for March 1 [intraday]:

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Code Company Price % Market Cap
ANL Amani Gold Ltd 0.0015 -25.0% $45,866,882
KLL Kalium Lakes Ltd 0.08 -20.0% $118,171,221
RBR RBR Group Ltd 0.004 -20.0% $6,438,102
RMI Resource Mining Corp 0.016 -20.0% $7,873,462
DTC Damstra Holdings 0.2 -18.4% $63,135,615
BRU Buru Energy 0.21 -17.6% $137,302,963
EVE EVE Health Group Ltd 0.0025 -16.7% $11,529,426
GFN Gefen Int 0.23 -15.6% $16,614,049
VIP VIP Gloves 0.022 -15.4% $20,456,317
FIJ Fiji Kava Limited 0.048 -14.3% $10,539,133
LNU Linius Tech Limited 0.013 -13.3% $26,155,840
SFR Sandfire Resources 5.83 -13.0% $2,746,878,683
TMH The Market Herald 0.51 -12.1% $113,232,840
MRI Myrewardsinternation 0.06 -11.8% $8,863,341
BSA BSA Limited 0.155 -11.4% $76,341,208
SGI Stealth Global 0.12 -11.1% $13,459,500
CLH Collection House 0.13 -10.3% $20,582,483
BNL Blue Star Helium Ltd 0.045 -10.0% $79,308,503
EIQ Echoiq Ltd 0.135 -10.0% $59,149,907
MMC Mitremining 0.18 -10.0% $5,417,020
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