ASX Small Cap Lunch Wrap: Who’s taking the long arm of the law all the way to the moon today?

Canada has taken the long arm of the law saying literally, with a proposed amendment to its criminal code to include crimes committed on the moon.

The code already covers astronauts who may commit crimes during space flight to the International Space Station, with any crime committed considered to have been committed in Canada.

Currently if a crime is committed in space, the crim would be subject to the law of the country where they are a citizen or the country aboard whose spacecraft the crime was committed.

But this amendment would include new space destinations like the moon – particularly considering Canada is part of the Lunar Gateway project which includes a planned trip to the moon.

To Markets …

The ASX 200 is up 56.50 points or 0.77% at midday today to 7,413.40.

In China, builders strengthened further after the country’s leader called for “all-out efforts” to boost infrastructure construction.

China State Construction Engineering, China Railway Group and China Communications Construction jumped 4.2%-6.9% yesterday.

The Brent crude oil prices rose by 2.2% to US$107.59 a barrel on reports that Germany would back any EU ban on Russian oil if it was done gradually. The German shift has now increased the likelihood of a bloc-wide embargo, with a decision to be announced as early as next week.

Before the Ukraine war, Russian oil accounted for around a third of Germany’s supply.

In the US, new economic data released on Thursday showed an annualised 1.4% drop in US Gross Domestic Product in the first quarter.

“It’s the first quarterly fall in GDP since 2Q20, when part of the economy was shut down to contain the spread of Covid-19,” Unicredit economist Daniel Vernazza says.

“Importantly, the fall in GDP isn’t nearly as bad as it looks because the big detractors from GDP in 1Q22, net exports and inventories, are also the most volatile components and are likely to improve in coming quarters.”

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for April 29 [intraday]:

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Maronan Metals (ASX:MMA) has commenced trading on the ASX today after its $15m IPO.

The company is a spin-out of Red Metals (ASX:RDM) and is focused on its namesake lead-silver-copper-gold project in Queensland, which has an existing 2 million tonne lead, 105Moz silver, 170,000t copper and 300,00oz gold resource.

It is in the mineral-rich Carpentaria Province, which hosts multiple Tier 1 lead-zinc-silver mines like Mount Isa, George Fisher, Century, Cannington, Dugald River and significant copper deposits including Mount Isa, Ernest Henry, Osborne, and Eloise.

MMA plans to drill for additional shallow, copper-gold and lead-silver mineralisation as well as the potentially larger, higher-grade copper-gold and lead-zinc-silver extensions at depth in the September quarter.

And Hydrocarbon Dynamics (ASX:HCD) has revealed that a recently announced order to chemically treat 30 wells, plus follow up order, came from oil and gas giant Santos.

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS