For a life-changing event on the scale of COVID-19, it was only a matter of time before conspiracy theories about the virus’ origin began to emerge.
As it turns out, one man that appears to have jumped on the conspiracy train is Pat Cash, the headband-donning Aussie tennis player who took out the men’s singles title at Wimbledown in 1987.
Cash turned some heads on Twitter today by posting a (now deleted) link to a far-flung conspiracy film called ‘Plandemic: Indoctornation’.
The tweet sparked criticism from other tennis players and health professionals. Here’s our favourite Twitter response so far:
To markets now, and the ASX200 has given away most of the gains it posted yesterday, while the Small Ords index is treading water as reporting season continues in full swing.
The main move overnight was in currencies, as a bout of strength in the beleaguered US dollar saw the Australian dollar fall back below US72c, while US dollar gold fell back from the $US2,000 level to around $US1,940.
WINNERS
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Thursday August 20:
CODE COMPANY PRICE CHANGE MARKET CAP FRX Flexiroam Ltd 0.045 200.00% $18.3M OEX Oilex 0.002 66.67% $8.2M MNB Minbos Resources Ltd 0.0015 50.00% $8.5M DHR Dark Horse Resources 0.003 50.00% $8.1M CAF Centrepoint Alliance Ltd 0.13 44.44% $20.7M KZA Kazia Therapeutics 1.12 35.76% $107.8M ENX Enegex NL 0.065 32.65% $5.2M IEL Idp Education Ltd 19.15 28.35% $5.3B AUQ Alara Resources Ltd 0.02 25.00% $13.3M ASQ Australian Silica Quartz 0.074 23.33% $15.9M AO1 Assetowl 0.013 18.18% $6.4M RAN Range International 0.013 18.18% $4.7M WGO Petrel Energy 0.23 15.00% $191.3M MXI MaxiTRANS 0.205 17.14% $36.9M MGT Magnetite Mines 0.011 16.67% $22.6M CPV ClearVue Technologies 0.145 16.00% 16.1M ADD Adavale Resources Ltd 0.015 15.38% $2.6M WKT Walkabout Resources 0.23 15.00% $78.6M ANR Anatara Lifesciences Ltd 0.24 14.29% $12.0M
$6.1m market cap company Flexiroam (ASX:FRX) climbed by 200 per cent on no news at the opening bell, before going into a trading halt at 10:18am AEST.
Flexiroam, which provides mobile data plans for people travelling overseas, released a formal announcement a short time later to reveal it had requested a trading halt pending a further announcement.
Also rising strongly was financial services firm Centrepoint Alliance (ASX:CAF), which shot higher on the back of a strong annual report and trading update.
And biotech company Kazia Therapeutics (ASX:KZA) continued its strong month after announcing it had received a Fast Track Designation from US health authorities for its paxalisib brain cancer treatment.
LOSERS
Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Thursday August 20:
CODE | COMPANY | PRICE | CHANGE | MARKET CAP |
---|---|---|---|---|
MSI | Multistack Intl | 0.006 | -40.00% | $1.1M |
QFY | Quantify Tech | 0.001 | -33.33% | $2.0M |
XTD | XTD Ltd | 0.05 | -13.79% | $6.9M |
PSL | Paterson Resources | 0.003 | -25.00% | $11.6M |
ADY | Admiralty Resources | 0.007 | -12.50% | $8.1M |
SER | Strategic Energy Resources | 0.007 | -12.50% | $11.2M |
SUH | Southern Hemi Mining | 0.023 | -11.54% | $2.5M |
CLA | Celsius Resources | 0.016 | -11.11% | $12.5M |
SYA | Sayona Mining Ltd | 0.008 | -11.11% | $22.4M |
FYI | FYI Resources Ltd | 0.074 | -10.84% | $16.4M |
AGD | Austral Gold Ltd | 0.295 | -10.61% | $167.0M |
EMD | Emerald Clinics | 0.086 | -10.42% | $15.8M |
LI3 | Lithium Consolidated Mineral | 0.026 | -10.34% | $6.7M |
PFT | Pure Foods Tasmania Ltd | 0.65 | -10.34% | $35.5M |
KFE | Kogi Iron | 0.026 | -10.34% | $20.1M |
IRI | Integrated Research | 4.4 | -10.20% | $757.9M |
SBR | Sabre Resources Ltd | 0.004 | -10.00% | $5.0M |
VAL | Valor Resources | 0.004 | -10.00% | $9.6M |
PRM | Prominence Energy NL | 0.009 | -10.00% | $2.2M |
IVZ | Invictus Energy | 0.036 | -10.00% | $16.6M |