ASX Small Cap Lunch Wrap: Who's not 'out of the woods' yet this Christmas?

To all of our fellow ‘Stockheads’, season’s greetings.

Australia’s east coast is settling in for what looks like a COVID-19 Christmas, as NSW reported nine new cases from more than 60,000 tests overnight.

That’s a lot of tests, but premier Gladys Berejiklian said the state is “not out of the woods” just yet.

Seven of the new cases came from the Avalon cluster, and authorities are on alert for what looks like a case of community transmission from a hotel in Sydney’s CBD. Another case from the northern beaches region has also snuck into Queensland.

Despite all that, markets have now digested (via three straight days of falls) the ‘rona scare, and ASX stocks are on track for their second straight day of strong gains heading into the Christmas break.

Local markets took the cue from a strong global lead overnight, amid optimism that EU and UK lawmakers might actually come to some kind of compromise in the Brexit negotiations.

After wrapping up early today at 2:10pm AEDT, Aussie markets will close over Christmas before reopening on Tuesday, December 29.

WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Thursday December 24:

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

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
ANL	Amani Gold Ltd	0.0015	50	2,772,001	$ 9,386,996.75
CFO	Cfoam Limited	0.035	35	117,540,697	$ 12,351,885.18
BCK	Brockman Mining Ltd	0.08	33	165,462	$ 556,753,927.86
8CO	8Common Limited	0.15	30	4,442,118	$ 23,025,853.15
BRN	Brainchip Ltd	0.42	29	67,794,590	$ 525,392,266.10
AGE	Alligator Energy	0.009	29	1,524,861	$ 14,891,105.73
ORM	Orion Metals Ltd	0.02	25	50,000	$ 8,721,559.09
ARE	Argonaut Resources	0.006	20	13,711,681	$ 14,564,357.25
FPL	Fremont Petroleum	0.003	20	1,500,000	$ 11,687,947.97
NPM	Newpeak Metals	0.003	20	4,295,000	$ 11,670,406.27
VPR	Volt Power Group	0.003	20	30,000	$ 22,923,833.90
AVZ	AVZ Minerals Ltd	0.115	17	26,341,315	$ 281,014,853.78
LEX	Lefroy Exploration	0.21	17	198,163	$ 21,601,740.06
ELT	Elementos Limited	0.007	17	2,054,859	$ 19,477,958.53
FGO	Fargo Enterprises	0.0035	17	200,000	$ 3,557,270.11
CCP	Credit Corp Group	28.58	15	510,484	$ 1,674,143,125.29
CE1	Calima Energy	0.008	14	25,000	$ 15,343,567.46
DDT	DataDot Technology	0.008	14	545,458	$ 8,693,086.26
ESH	Esports Mogul Ltd	0.016	14	7,552,022	$ 40,280,328.59
RLC	Reedy Lagoon Corp.	0.016	14	612,263	$ 6,576,272.98
PM8	Pensana Rare Earths	1.62	12	447,794	$ 184,848,469.12

The morning leaders held their gains into midday trade, as CFOAM (ASX:CFO) rose by 35 per cent after scoring a $US2.4m contract from the US Department of Energy.

And AI tech company Brainchip (ASX:BRN) also got a boost, after announcing NASA had placed an order for its Akida Early Access Evaluation kit to further evaluate the technology.

BRN’s 30 per cent climb saw the stock rise back above 40c, although it’s still well-off its 2020 high of 94c following a highly publicised mid-year surge.

For further analysis, here’s Nick Sundich’s wrap of this morning’s pre-Christmas tech winners.

LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Thursday December 24:

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

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
KP2	Kore Potash PLC	0.023	-50	15,281,940	$ 10,717,745.71
CLZ	Classic Min Ltd	0.0015	-25	13,706,881	$ 30,536,536.61
AVE	Avecho Biotech Ltd	0.031	-24	57,681,109	$ 65,554,681.88
AO1	Assetowl Limited	0.006	-14	229,619	$ 3,433,000.32
MSR	Manas Res Ltd	0.006	-14	70,000	$ 19,321,915.19
TOU	Tlou Energy Ltd	0.053	-13	200,000	$ 32,037,141.38
BSM	Bass Metals Ltd	0.0035	-12.5	1,000,000	$ 16,086,702.94
DCX	Discovex Res Ltd	0.007	-12.5	520,000	$ 9,569,312.61
SKS	SKS Tech Group Ltd	0.16	-11	22,173	$ 17,985,006.72
AYM	Australia United Min	0.008	-11	28,000	$ 16,583,197.37
LCY	Legacy Iron Ore	0.034	-11	4,617,550	$ 237,395,063.65
EFE	Eastern Iron	0.009	-10	221,875	$ 4,736,854.34
PAB	Patrys Limited	0.0235	-10	9,560,634	$ 47,007,367.45
NAE	New Age Exploration	0.01	-9	8,997,874	$ 13,057,334.51
CYL	Catalyst Metals	2.2	-9	150,734	$ 200,993,272.18
BDM	Burgundy D Mines Ltd	0.16	-9	132,746	$ 43,619,553.08
RLG	Roolife Group Ltd	0.022	-8	149,465	$ 13,913,474.69
MGT	Magnetite Mines	0.012	-8	1,675,847	$ 37,132,591.08
PRL	Province Resources	0.012	-8	177,082	$ 8,723,248.51
MEM	Memphasys Ltd	0.12	-8	634,925	$ 98,120,604.40
PLL	Piedmont Lithium Ltd	0.38	-7	1,146,435	$ 570,188,991.78