Bioxyne tops the week’s ASX small cap winners list with 287pc gain

ASX Small Cap Winners Dec 4-8

Bioxyne shareholders won the lottery last week after the probiotic (or “good bacteria”) producer announced it would follow the path of a2 Milk and Bubs into milk formula targeted at South East Asia.

The shares (ASX:BXN) quadrupled to a historic high of 14c up from 3.1c a week earlier.

They closed at 12c on Friday — giving shareholders a 287 per cent gain for the week.

The Kiwi company makes dairy-based drinks under the BK18 brand with immune-boosting probiotics, for infants as well as the rest of the family.

Minnow Ishine International Resources told investors last Monday it was taking longer than expected to complete an acquisition and asked the ASX for an extension to its trading suspension.

The shares went *boom* when trading resumed two days later, almost doubling from 2.2c to a year-high of 4c.

Ishine (ASX:ISH), which is looking for nickel, cobalt and gold in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, went into a trading halt on November 24 pending an announcement regarding a potential announcement.

The company then went into a voluntary suspension — extended twice — to give it more time to finalise documentation relating to the potential acquisition.

On Wednesday Ishine announced it planned to buy a 70 per cent stake in a Canadian zinc project.

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Lithium explorer Force Commodities hit a year-high of 9.6c — almost double its close of 5c the previous Friday — after moving in next door to AVZ Minerals in the Congo.

Force announced plans to form a new lithium production focused partnership on land that is now mined for tin and tantalum.

The shares ended the week at 7.6c — up 52 per cent from the previous week’s close.

Force (ASX:4CE) is establishing a joint venture with tin and tantalum miner Mining Mineral Resources to explore for lithium in the Congo.

The 194 sq km project, which comprises a granted mining and exploration licence, lies immediately south of AVZ Mineral’s (ASX:AVZ) highly anticipated Manono lithium project.

Forget goat milk or fancy mandarins, honey water is the next big Chinese food fad — or at least that’s what medical nutrition investor EVE (ASX:EVE) hopes.

Eve shares are up five-fold over the past month on the back of a move into hemp-based foods.

Their honey health investment, Meluka Health this week teamed up with water distiller Refresh Group (ASX:RGP) to create a Australian honey water for the Chinese market.

News of the new venture boosted the shares by 17 per cent for the week.

Honey water will be a way for Meluka to dip their toe in the Asian market, where natural food products from Australia are popular.

“Working with Refresh to produce a honey water product is a great fit for the Chinese market and will help establish the Meluka Honey brand in China,” EVE investment director Ben Rohr said.

It was a big week for ASX listings, with eight companies joining the local bourse.

Two notable debuts were Rhythm Bioscience and Roots Sustainable Agricultural Technologies.

CSIRO spinout Rhythm Biosciences handsomely rewarded its backers on debut with an 82.5 per cent stag profit.

Roots has pioneered technology that heats and cools the roots of plants to increase crop yield and allow crops to be grown out of season.

Israeli agtech Roots Sustainable also blossomed on debut, listing at a 75 per cent premium to its offer price.

US student loan service Credible Labs made its ASX-debut on Friday after the biggest tech Initial Public Offering of the year.

Credible (ASX:CRD), led by Aussie tech entrepreneur Stephen Dash, raised $67 million to further develop its student finance platform.

The shares closed Friday at $1.32 — 11c above the $1.21 offer price.

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for Dec 4-8:

ASX Small Cap Losers Dec 4-8

Auroch Minerals (ASX:AOU) halved in value last week after the explorer revealed disappointing lab results for the first two holes at its Tisová project in the Czech Republic.

Copper and cobalt results “have not replicated the results obtained from grab samples reported from historic waste dumps on site”, Auroch told investors this week.

“Gold results are closer to expectations, however the cobalt and copper results are both lower grade, and across narrower intervals than expected from the visual logging of the core.”

With the onset of the winter, exploration activity had been suspended “and can only resume post snow melts in 2018”, the company said.

Chief executive Dr Andrew Tunks said: “The assay [lab test] results to date are disappointing and not in line with our expectations.

“We await the results of the second two holes before formulating our future exploration plans. Clearly the material we have drilled is substantially different from the samples we collected from the Tisová waste dumps.”

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for Dec 4-8: