ASX Small Cap Lunch Wrap: Who's obsessed with their precious metals today?

Local stocks were trading flat at midday, with the ASX edging into positive territory shortly after 12pm EST.

The morning session was highlighted by a sharp selloff in gold, which collapsed from around US$1,760 to briefly fall below US$1,700/0z in Asian trade.

Benchmark US treasury yields are rising, which often acts as a catalyst to send gold prices lower (here’s why).

Traders have also flagged the effect of flows and market positioning as Asian traders arrived at the desk.

This #Gold move is ugly….liquidations clearly in play from Asian leveraged accounts, so one questions if this creates intra-day long play

— Chris Weston (@ChrisWeston_PS) August 8, 2021

Whatever the cause, buyers stepped in once prices fell below $US1,700, and a short time ago the precious metal had stabilised above $US1,730.

Elsewhere, you may have noticed a fairly furious lithium rally taking place in ASX small caps. Well, that continued in morning trade, as investors stay in the hunt for the next big lithium winner.

WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks in morning trade for Monday, August 9:

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

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
CLZ	Classic Min Ltd	0.0015	50.0%	14672500	$ 22,369,104.43
WOO	Wooboard Tech Ltd	0.0015	50.0%	4055877	$ 3,822,162.74
HUO	Huon Aquaculture Grp	3.85	38.0%	694961	$ 306,545,555.61
ANL	Amani Gold Ltd	0.002	33.3%	514556	$ 18,580,495.12
PCL	Pancontinental Oil	0.002	33.3%	92513	$ 9,010,073.23
AXP	AXP Energy Ltd	0.006	33.3%	236896305	$ 21,053,306.34
KLR	Kaili Resources Ltd	0.029	31.8%	191500	$ 3,242,807.99
CHR	Charger Metals	0.555	29.1%	6091654	$ 13,760,000.43
ADV	Ardiden Ltd	0.013	18.2%	38863343	$ 23,642,896.38
KNM	Kneomedia Limited	0.007	16.7%	140722	$ 6,580,079.97
VRC	Volt Resources Ltd	0.029	16.0%	7447065	$ 61,001,289.63
4DX	4Dmedical Limited	1.72	15.4%	603898	$ 308,757,066.92
AAJ	Aruma Resources Ltd	0.068	15.3%	3197744	$ 6,251,694.69
MAY	Melbana Energy Ltd	0.025	15.0%	6874811	$ 50,353,985.22
HNR	Hannans Ltd	0.008	14.3%	5792379	$ 16,519,840.34
ARR	American Rare Earths	0.12	14.3%	4711308	$ 36,152,374.23
FZO	Family Zone Cyber	0.67	13.9%	10870325	$ 256,689,157.89
IKW	Ikwezi Mining Ltd	0.33	13.8%	8530	$ 11,788,492.46
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.0045	12.5%	4048696	$ 20,060,494.29
4DS	4Ds Memory Limited	0.24	12.0%	10794194	$ 284,003,914.82
ATP	Atlas Pearls Ltd	0.029	12.0%	1513174	$ 11,124,665.71

Oil & gas play AXP Energy (ASX:AXP) ticked higher on strong volumes, after flagging net revenues (after royalties) of $1.8m in July. The company said it also expects to exceed its Q2 totals in the September quarter.

Chairman Simon Johnson said the July revenue figures were the result of “improved operational performance and reliability from our core natural gas and NGL operations, rather than a reliance on a heavy sell down in oil inventory”.

4DMedical (ASX:4DX) was also on the winner’s list, after signing a deal with pharmaceutical company Novartis for the commercial use of its XV Lung Ventilation analysis software.

“Whilst the contract is not substantial in terms of revenue at this stage, it also represents the beginning of our commercial relationship with Novartis and expands our commercial product offering to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries,” CEO Andreas Fouras said.

LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks in morning trade for Monday, August 9:

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
BAS	Bass Oil Ltd	0.002	-20.0%	251684	$ 8,359,753.04
GLE	GLG Corp Ltd	0.285	-19.0%	7282	$ 25,935,000.00
AOA	Ausmon Resorces	0.005	-16.7%	641666	$ 4,263,956.06
SHM	Shriro Holdings Ltd	0.895	-15.2%	1211235	$ 100,317,312.50
BMN	Bannerman Energy Ltd	0.135	-12.9%	5809406	$ 184,316,355.59
LCY	Legacy Iron Ore	0.014	-12.5%	11967	$ 102,475,816.27
TMX	Terrain Minerals	0.007	-12.5%	511875	$ 5,886,088.07
S2R	S2 Resources	0.14	-12.5%	1487368	$ 50,382,588.64
ONX	Orminexltd	0.038	-11.6%	1980001	$ 23,559,464.53
OBM	Ora Banda Mining Ltd	0.12	-11.1%	1090604	$ 131,374,746.32
AVW	Avira Resources Ltd	0.004	-11.1%	81250	$ 6,187,680.00
DDD	3D Resources Limited	0.004	-11.1%	1361112	$ 17,461,674.41
BNR	Bulletin Res Ltd	0.058	-10.8%	99577	$ 11,654,049.81
CVV	Caravel Minerals Ltd	0.34	-10.5%	723070	$ 143,792,006.46
YRL	Yandal Resources	0.48	-10.3%	48067	$ 53,735,374.86
NAG	Nagambie Resources	0.07	-10.3%	133904	$ 38,994,722.99
LNY	Laneway Res Ltd	0.0045	-10.0%	3789758	$ 19,520,329.67
NWE	Norwest Energy NL	0.009	-10.0%	4396232	$ 51,166,148.36
RIM	Rimfire Pacific	0.009	-10.0%	700000	$ 18,062,447.35
TPD	Talon Energy Ltd	0.009	-10.0%	9786414	$ 60,167,895.25
HPP	Health Plant Protein	0.23	-9.8%	86666	$ 31,319,288.19

Among stocks with announcements, textiles company GLG Corp (ASX:GLE) led the laggards after announcing the resignation of its chief financial officer, Victoria Yong, effective from today.

Kitchen appliances company Shriro Holdings (ASX:SHM) also dipped sharply after announcing it will transfer its BLANCO appliance and sink/tap distributions in Australia and New Zealand — which comprise around 10% of group revenues — back to BLANCO, which will take over all operations from May 1, 2022.