Closing Bell: ASX closes up 0.5% as smaller end of town does even better in positive end to week

S&P/ASX 200 closes up 0.5%, Emerging Companies index up 1.50%
Fair Work Commission delivers bigger than expected 5.75% lift in award wage
Cyclone Metals defines a series of gold anomalies at its Macraes South project

Aussie markets are ending a topsy turvy week on a high, with the S&P ASX 200 index closing up 0.5%. The S&P ASX Emerging Companies index (XEC) – a benchmark for Australia’s micro-cap companies – fared even better closing 1.5% higher.

But still only five of the 11 sectors were in the green today. Leading the winners was the materials sector, up 2.51% followed by energy rising 1.40% and utilities adding 0.69%.

Leading the laggards was consumer staples falling 1.29%, followed by healthcare dropping 0.63 and communication services down 0.56%.

Overnight, Wall Street rose across the board, with the S&P 500 finishing higher by 1% and tech heavy Nasdaq by 1.3% as the debt ceiling bill passed the House of Representatives on a 314-117 vote.

An approval by the Senate is expected soon despite a revolt amongst a handful of Republicans, ensuring the world’s largest economy actually has enough money in the kitty to pay its bills.

The artificial intelligence (AI) frenzy that has been gripping markets did get a case of the hiccups as C3.ai fell 13% on weaker-than-expected full-year revenue guidance.

And speculation continues on what RBA Governor Philip Lowe and his mates will do at their May meeting next Tuesday after the Fair Work Commission delivered a bigger than expected 5.75% lift in the award wage.

Combined with a shock inflation report released this way cash rate futures are betting on a 42% chance of a 25bp hike by the RBA in June bringing the cast rate to 4.10% up from 3.85%.

Australia’s headline inflation came in at 6.8% for April, up from 6.3% the month before and above what experts had generally forecast.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 3.89% driven by a rally in tech firms, while in mainland China the Shanghai Composite was up 0.80%.

Japanese markets were also up today. The Topix was rose 1.40%, while the Nikkei 225 was up 1.08%.

TODAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Code	Company	Price	%	Volume	Market Cap
CLE	Cyclone Metals	0.0015	50%	40,100,500	$9,089,248
GMN	Gold Mountain Ltd	0.004	33%	1,325,808	$5,909,798
GGE	Grand Gulf Energy	0.012	33%	13,298,001	$14,942,223
BET	Betmakers Tech Group	0.1875	29%	7,800,262	$136,813,532
DOU	Douugh Limited	0.009	29%	6,384,452	$6,887,289
A3D	Aurora Labs Limited	0.027	29%	20,014,947	$5,161,969
GCM	Green Critical Min	0.019	27%	687,187	$14,797,179
WCG	Webcentral Ltd	0.125	25%	1,859,027	$32,912,623
EMU	EMU NL	0.0025	25%	450,523	$2,900,043
MNB	Minbos Resources Ltd	0.1225	24%	3,790,913	$78,332,439
INP	Incentiapay Ltd	0.016	23%	1,690,819	$16,445,827
TRP	Tissue Repair	0.35	23%	150,183	$13,332,401
TNY	Tinybeans Group Ltd	0.28	22%	197,896	$14,118,655
ZEU	Zeus Resources Ltd	0.04	21%	6,507,180	$14,465,385
OCT	Octava Minerals	0.145	21%	126,239	$4,459,501
DCX	Discovex Res Ltd	0.003	20%	1,795,363	$8,256,420
ODE	Odessa Minerals Ltd	0.012	20%	13,043,888	$7,514,597
THR	Thor Energy PLC	0.006	20%	2,097,222	$7,368,064
ZMI	Zinc of Ireland NL	0.024	20%	54,924	$4,262,886
PIL	Peppermint Inv Ltd	0.01	18%	652,011	$17,321,783
CTN	Catalina Resources	0.0035	17%	886,658	$3,715,461
DLT	Delta Drone Intl Ltd	0.014	17%	5,930,506	$6,206,445
HXL	Hexima	0.014	17%	4,473,982	$2,004,476
TKL	Traka Resources	0.007	17%	3,049,926	$5,227,976
ASO	Aston Minerals Ltd	0.093	16%	1,117,904	$89,178,475

Topping the winners list today was minnow Cyclone Metals (ASX:CLE) after announcing a soil sampling program at its Macraes South project in New Zealand’s Otago province has generated highly prospective drill targets over multiple lodes.

The program has returned strong coherent and continuous geochemical responses over gold lode zones at Macraes South, with anomalous responses up to 350m wide.

CLE said potentially around five mineralised lodes have been identified for testing at the Swamy Hill prospect and an application for an extension of term has been lodged for another drilling program to test the defined anomalies if an access agreement is signed with the landowners.

Also on the winners list is Grand Gulf Energy’s (ASX:GGE) after an independent review confirmed significant helium flow potential at Jesse-1A well, part of the 10.6bcf Red Helium project in Utah.

“The Company is highly encouraged by the modelling results indicating reservoir with the potential for significant helium flow in the Jesse-1A well and surrounding area,” MD Dane Lance said in an announcement.

“The Company now has a range of opportunities across the Red Helium project, and we look forward to being back in the field to confirm the modelling results with a successful flow test.”

TODAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Code	Company	Price	%	Volume	Market Cap
MDX	Mindax Limited	0.069	-27%	832,964	$194,328,084
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.0015	-25%	6,403,859	$7,472,172
MOB	Mobilicom Ltd	0.007	-22%	300,279	$11,940,090
H2G	Greenhy2 Limited	0.019	-21%	1,314,282	$10,050,140
AYT	Austin Metals Ltd	0.004	-20%	67,881	$5,079,373
CTO	Citigold Corp Ltd	0.004	-20%	398,333	$14,368,295
MTB	Mount Burgess Mining	0.002	-20%	20,771,784	$2,207,928
TSL	Titanium Sands Ltd	0.008	-20%	100,000	$14,063,978
SRJ	SRJ Technologies	0.089	-19%	315,251	$10,429,766
NZS	New Zealand Coastal	0.0025	-17%	7,930,000	$4,962,030
RBR	RBR Group Ltd	0.0025	-17%	1,013	$4,855,214
CLU	Cluey Ltd	0.081	-16%	50,000	$19,556,516
ZLD	Zelira Therapeutics	1.94	-16%	114,464	$26,098,457
ADH	Adairs Limited	1.59	-16%	5,210,780	$326,201,101
HMI	Hiremii	0.05	-15%	100,000	$6,888,584
VEN	Vintage Energy	0.053	-14%	3,039,619	$46,191,715
CPT	Cipherpoint Limited	0.006	-14%	928	$8,114,692
ELE	Elmore Ltd	0.012	-14%	4,786,350	$19,591,374
OLL	Openlearning	0.026	-13%	383,239	$8,036,072
AOA	Ausmon Resorces	0.0035	-13%	5,129,164	$3,877,157
AVM	Advance Metals Ltd	0.007	-13%	21,428	$4,708,470
CHK	Cohiba Min Ltd	0.0035	-13%	341,200	$8,452,977
OAR	OAR Resources Ltd	0.0035	-13%	378,000	$9,644,152
XTC	Xantippe Res Ltd	0.0035	-13%	115,350,365	$45,920,399
YOJ	Yojee Limited	0.014	-13%	3,477,047	$18,135,399

LAST ORDERS

In the tech space, global drones-as-a-service provider Delta Drone (ASX:DLT) said it has secured Basic Aviation Risk Standard (BARS) Registration, in its Rocketmine Australia and Rocketmine South Africa operations.

BARS is an internationally recognised safety audit program run by the Flight Safety Foundation, covering all flight and operational aspects of an aviation company – including flight operations, maintenance handling, personnel, aircraft and quality and safety systems.

DLT has received the green’status for the comprehensive registration stream, which includes beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone data capture activities for the company.

Customers visiting nine new WHSmith Toys R Us shop-in-shop stores across the UK will be welcomed by a life-size Geoffrey the Giraffe with dedicated sections by age, interest, and category, with interactive experiences and demonstration tables.

Toys R Us ANZ (ASX:TOY) today announced locations of nine WHSmith high street stores which will be unveiling new Toys R Us shop-in-shops from this month.

TOY said the new retail partnership follows last year’s launch of Toys R Us UK’s digital flagship ecommerce website www.toysrus.co.uk with the WHSmith high street stores located in Oxford, Cheltenham, Cwmbran, Reading, Solihull, Poole, Canterbury and Chelmsford.