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ASX Small Caps Lunch Wrap: Who else is bracing for yet another call for tighter games control?
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Local markets have opened lower this morning, partly because Wall Street had a very mediocre Friday session, but mostly because it’s Monday morning and the benchmark – just like me – probably only got out of bed at all through outright fear of what might happen if it didn’t.
Despite the early 0.2% dip, the ASX has rallied back to break-even at lunchtime, thanks to a solid run on a handful of Health Care stocks this morning.
Before I get into the details on that, there’s news out of Alabama of an exciting police pursuit, after an 8-year-old child got hold of a firearm, carjacked an actual adult human and took off through the streets of the state’s capital city, Montgomery.
According to local reports, the young fella threatened a driver with the gun around 11am, before fleeing in the vehicle and refusing to stop for police while “terrorising the local community”, as this incredible footage shows.
“When I realised it was a little boy, I knew I had to follow them and make sure no one got hit and that he got caught because don’t want him driving all over Montgomery, causing more accidents or hurting himself or hurting other people,” witness “Snake” Knapp told local TV station WSFA.
Other witnesses said at one point, the child stopped to pick up a couple of adult passengers, before crashing into another motorist and being taken into custody and charged with first-degree robbery, attempting to elude police and “certain persons forbidden to possess a firearm”.
In a bid to ensure that no child is able to repeat this sort of crime, bi-partisan efforts have been launched to introduce legislation aimed at vastly restricting access to video games across the United States.
TO MARKETS
The ASX 200 benchmark is basically flat at lunchtime today, after recovering from a 0.2% dip earlier in the day.
Sector-wise, it’s an even split – five up, five down and the Telcos holding the deciding vote at this stage, but refusing to commit either way.
Up top is Health Care (+0.77%) thanks to strong results for Neurotech (ASX:NTI) (up 20.5%) and Lumos Diagnostics (ASX:LDX) (up 12.5%).
Lagging this morning are Consumer Staples (-0.85%), Energy (-0.7%) and Materials (-0.6%).
The closest thing to a Large Capper in the winners circle is Kogan (ASX:KGN), which has climbed 5.5% this morning on news that a team of linguistics experts have managed to decode the one-size-fits-all user manual of the company’s low-budget OLED 4K UHD TVs, and discovered details of a lost civilization in the mountains of Papua New Guinea.
Sadly, there’s still no clue as to how to change any of the screen functionality or the volume without re-programming every microwave in a three-block radius, but the researchers believe that they are “getting close”, and expect to have results “sometime in the next 8-10 years”.
NOT THE ASX
As previously mentioned, Wall Street had a fairly average day on Friday, which left the S&P 500 down modestly by -0.1%, while the tech heavy Nasdaq fell -0.18%.
Earlybird Eddy Sunarto reports this morning that US banks were mixed following quarterly reports from the likes of JP Morgan and Wells Fargo, after both banks reported higher profits in the quarter, but also increased their provisions for potential losses stemming from commercial property loans.
Citigroup and BlackRock meanwhile were down 4% and 1.5% respectively following their results.
In Japan, the Nikkei’s not moving because markets there are closed for the Marine Day holiday, while in China, Shanghai markets are down around 1.0%, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng is flat.
ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for July 17 [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap MTL Mantle Minerals Ltd 0.0015 50% 268,319 6,147,446 MBK Metal Bank Ltd 0.029 38% 1,079,613 5,806,196 CCO The Calmer Co Int 0.004 33% 49,629,005 1,692,233 DXN DXN Limited 0.002 33% 1,000,000 2,581,972 DRO Droneshield Limited 0.35 32% 11,095,521 155,529,457 TGH Terragen 0.033 32% 30,333 6,063,469 CSX Cleanspace Holdings 0.31 29% 23,416 18,493,100 M2R Miramar 0.052 27% 330,348 3,789,999 NOU Noumi Limited 0.17 26% 475,008 37,409,758 JPR Jupiter Energy 0.025 25% 83,000 24,597,002 NYM Narryer Metals 0.15 25% 3,046,351 3,658,500 LSR Lodestar Minerals 0.005 25% 7,394,836 7,373,589 MRD Mount Ridley Mines 0.0025 25% 1,170,500 15,569,766 YOJ Yojee Limited 0.024 23% 4,336,905 22,102,517 MCA Murray Cod Aust Ltd 0.175 21% 113,160 111,034,241 NTI Neurotech Intl 0.053 20% 110,057 38,452,017 AME Alto Metals Limited 0.066 20% 69,369,156 33,704,851 MAU Magnetic Resources 0.7 17% 11,000 142,172,421 BEX Bike Exchange 0.007 17% 469,745 6,725,901 CXU Cauldron Energy Ltd 0.007 17% 1,234,956 5,589,412 BEZ Besragoldinc 0.32 16% 1,163,451 97,312,019 DEM De.Mem Ltd 0.18 16% 11,871 38,002,502 PAM Pan Asia Metals 0.255 16% 23,971 34,158,587 ENX Enegex Limited 0.023 15% 191,418 7,378,320 PRM Prominence Energy 0.023 15% 1,892,297 2,424,618
In Small Caps this morning, the market-leader is Narryer Metals (ASX:NYM) – up 33% so far today on news that the company has acquired a portfolio of prospective projects to explore for Lithium-Caesium-Tantalum type pegmatites, in the James Bay, Abitibi and NW Ontario regions, Canada.
The portfolios encompass 124km2 of granted mining claims, three in James Bay and two around Ontario, alongside established tenements held by other ASX-listers including Patriot Battery Metals (ASX:PMT) and Green Technology Metals (ASX:GT1).
Next best is Noumi (ASX:NOU) – formerly known as Freedom Foods Group – which is up 29.6% this morning and continuing its steady no-news climb that kicked off for apparently no reason in late June.
So far this month, Noumi is up 123.7%, despite having nothing to say to the ASX since releasing its quarterly report in April this year.
And in third place, it’s DroneShield (ASX:DRO), up 28.3% this morning on news that it’s been awarded a record $33 million equipment and services order from “a US Government agency”.
This latest contract comes after a separate $9.9 million deal signed with “another customer among the Five Eyes community”.
I know I’m not supposed to divulge more information on who DroneShield is working with, but that’s going to have to wait because someone’s knocking on my front door.
I’ll be back in a minute…
ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS
Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for July 17 [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
Lu Company Price % Volume Market Cap CCE Carnegie Cln Energy 0.001 -50% 4,659,382 $31,285,147 SLM Solis Minerals 0.585 -43% 4,949,672 $64,807,774 VSR Voltaic Strategic 0.046 -37% 40,270,634 $26,970,415 CLE Cyclone Metals 0.001 -33% 53,444,469 $15,396,757 FAU First Au Ltd 0.003 -25% 8,088,352 $5,807,973 MXC MGC Pharmaceuticals 0.003 -25% 103,559,310 $13,402,772 ELE Elmore Ltd 0.007 -22% 2,851,160 $12,594,454 POS Poseidon Nick Ltd 0.033 -21% 51,602,677 $142,969,297 GES Genesis Resources 0.004 -20% 400,000 $3,914,206 NZS New Zealand Coastal 0.002 -20% 1,160,000 $4,135,025 KAT Katana Capital 0.905 -19% 480 $37,475,667 AJQ Armour Energy Ltd 0.0025 -17% 2,446,952 $14,764,026 ATC Altech Batt Ltd 0.08 -17% 8,329,839 $136,969,523 CPT Cipherpoint Limited 0.005 -17% 15,041,616 $6,955,450 GTG Genetic Technologies 0.0025 -17% 874,463 $34,624,974 IS3 I Synergy Group Ltd 0.01 -17% 8,803 $3,468,964 TIG Tigers Realm Coal 0.005 -17% 870,000 $78,400,214 MPG Many Peaks Gold 0.165 -15% 2,530 $7,092,930 HCT Holista CollTech Ltd 0.011 -15% 26,500 $3,624,401 TTT Titomic Limited 0.017 -15% 1,386,300 $6,279,799 GWR GWR Group Ltd 0.082 -15% 105,002 $30,836,799 HTG Harvest Tech Grp Ltd 0.036 -14% 597,541 $26,536,415 MRI My Rewards International 0.018 -14% 6,110 $7,328,758 M4M Macro Metals Limited 0.003 -14% 27,027 $6,954,772 DAL Dalaroo Metals 0.06 -13% 402,224 $2,989,425
