Closing Bell: ASX falters after a promising start

ASX 200 pulls up lame after a solid early morning run
Energy and Materials limp like beaten favourites back to the dog house
Oceana Lithium becomes a bookie’s bestie, rocketing up the charts on debut

It all looked so promising this morning, as the ASX 200 leapt from the starting gates with more spring in its step than an African antelope. Sadly, the collective mid-morning coffee failed to kick in and the whole thing sagged like the wrong end of a ram throughout the afternoon.

For a broad view of how the whole week went, Captain Chedward is once again in the Stockhead NewsCopter, blaring Ride of the Valkyries while screaming market jargon into a microphone. You can catch all the Weekly Wrap action here.

Sector wise, it was groovier than an old-skool LP record in most regards, with Industrials (1.80%), Utilities (+1.64) and Real Estate (1.5%) pumping up the jams to get our bodies moving.

However Energy was decidedly Low-NRG (-2.59%) and the Materials girls shed percentage points like Madonna sheds her clothes, (-1.22%).

(Yes, it was a laboured metaphor, but we got there in the end, and that’s what counts).

Top of the Pops for the day was the performance of New Kids on the Lithium Block, Oceana Lithium (ASX:OCN).

The company’s oversubscribed IPO and market-watchers’ unrelenting need for mood-stabilising lithium drugs saw its price jump to $0.30, a 50% gain and a solid debut.

Lithium’s on the lips of everyone with their nose in the spodumene trough, and you can read even more about it here, with thanks to our very own super-journo Emma Davies.

Iron minnow CuFe (ASX:CUF) also had a belter today, despite no real news emerging from the front office. It was up close to 40% on a solid dollar amount of trade.

CuFe responded this afternoon to a “Yo, wassup?” from the ASX, with a reassuring “We cool, man… we cool” after the jump raised a few eyebrows around town.

$177,000-plus- change worth of volume is nothing to sneeze at with shares at a Lilliputian $0.007 apiece, and we suspect that even super-spy James Bond would be getting in at that price.

There weren’t many of the big kids sharing high-fives or nursing wedgies this afternoon – but what we can tell you is that everything with the word Betashares written on it has tanked harder than SeaWorld’s Orca enclosure, with the worst of the bunch plunging more than 19.0%.

It’s all down in the Betashares world by at least 5 points – which, rather spookily, is the same freakishly small point size they’ve used for the fonts in their ASX announcements, much to the annoyance of absolutely everybody everywhere. #NoCoincidences. #IlluminatiConfirmed.

Yancoal (ASX:YAL) upset the apple cart by announcing plans for an $801m debt prepayment by the end of the month, down 4.6% and Liontown (ASX:LTR) took another kicking, losing 3.32% despite getting inventors on the phone yesterday for a quick chat about how things are traveling.

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow rose after making announcements during the trading day).

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

Code	Company	Price	%	Market Cap
CCE	Carnegie Cln Energy	0.002	100%	$15,102,573.71
OCN	Oceanalithiumlimited	0.31	55%	$6,705,000.00
BAT	Battery Minerals Ltd	0.006	50%	$11,617,892.47
DXN	DXN Limited	0.007	40%	$7,356,574.18
CUF	Cufe Ltd	0.025	39%	$17,255,022.57
EBR	EBR Systems	0.51	36%	$98,619,948.38
KFE	Kogi Iron Ltd	0.004	33%	$4,852,733.27
GWR	GWR Group Ltd	0.12	33%	$28,909,498.95
TDO	3D Oil Limited	0.06	30%	$12,198,665.11
ICG	Inca Minerals Ltd	0.105	30%	$39,006,354.09
GRL	Godolphin Resources	0.11	26%	$7,320,849.99
MWY	Midway Ltd	0.935	26%	$64,628,804.28
ASB	Austal Limited	2.26	26%	$651,344,677.20
PPS	Praemium Limited	0.5825	25%	$236,171,194.53
AMD	Arrow Minerals	0.0025	25%	$3,647,863.52
AO1	Assetowl Limited	0.0025	25%	$3,144,259.52
DCX	Discovex Res Ltd	0.005	25%	$10,274,656.30
DDD	3D Resources Limited	0.0025	25%	$8,363,744.18
LNY	Laneway Res Ltd	0.005	25%	$25,208,065.64
AMS	Atomos	0.235	24%	$42,246,801.15
RNE	Renu Energy Ltd	0.037	23%	$10,936,980.36
DTC	Damstra Holdings	0.135	23%	$28,346,602.68
RAN	Range International	0.011	22%	$8,453,612.88
RMX	Red Mount Min Ltd	0.0055	22%	$7,390,637.36
TMK	TMK Energy Limited	0.011	22%	$31,320,000.00

A two-banger news day from EBR Systems (ASX:EBR) shovelled a 44% gain into shareholder’s packets, after the company announced the successful 158-patient trial of its wireless heart control gadgets.

If that wasn’t enough, EBR also let slip that it’s snagged a $50m growth capital facility, but despite that good news, its price settled a little after lunch, to finish with a heart-stealingly handsome 36% gain.

GWR Group Ltd (ASX:GWR) had a corker as well, climbing like King Kong up the Chrysler Building before it requested a trading halt at 1:41pm in response to a speeding ticket from the ASX, when it blasted through the speed camera doing 33% in a school zone.

Among those licking their wounds at lunchtime was Antipodes Global Shares (ASX:AGX1), headed for its namesake at the far end of the globe after its price plunged nearly 17.0%, and Pinnacle Minerals (ASX:PIM) fell sharply, down 14.0% on very thin trade.

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow rose after making announcements during the trading day).

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

Code	Company	Price	%	Market Cap
SLM	Solismineralsltd	0.068	-28%	$3,933,755.44
HT8	Harris Technology Gl	0.022	-27%	$8,948,864.43
GGX	Gas2Grid Limited	0.002	-20%	$10,145,255.20
SKN	Skin Elements Ltd	0.021	-19%	$11,263,908.92
EGL	Environmental Group	0.165	-18%	$61,724,771.20
PIM	Pinnacleminerals	0.125	-14%	$3,534,375.00
BKG	Booktopia Group	0.195	-13%	$30,905,842.28
MMG	Monger Gold Ltd	0.2	-13%	$9,209,200.00
RNO	Rhinomed Ltd	0.1	-13%	$32,857,764.81
KLI	Killiresources	0.145	-12%	$5,445,000.00
LM8	Lunnonmetalslimited	0.7	-11%	$86,802,140.33
CBL	Control Bionics	0.2	-11%	$11,324,453.85
MDI	Middle Island Res	0.12	-11%	$16,526,459.97
TMX	Terrain Minerals	0.008	-11%	$6,846,849.08
BCB	Bowen Coal Limited	0.22	-10%	$377,771,613.24
BYH	Bryah Resources Ltd	0.027	-10%	$6,786,215.25
CAD	Caeneus Minerals	0.005	-9%	$25,633,327.91
EDE	Eden Inv Ltd	0.01	-9%	$27,339,982.95
NCR	Nucoal Resources Ltd	0.01	-9%	$8,454,735.89
OIL	Optiscan Imaging	0.1	-9%	$68,134,616.22
X64	Ten Sixty Four Ltd	0.63	-9%	$157,289,847.69
EIQ	Echoiq Ltd	0.105	-9%	$46,440,762.00
OLY	Olympio Metals Ltd	0.105	-9%	$4,378,224.80
PNT	Panthermetalsltd	0.21	-9%	$6,670,000.00
ODY	Odyssey Gold Ltd	0.032	-9%	$18,635,065.93

ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY’VE MISSED

Australian Agricultural Projects Limited (ASX:AAP) says that the year’s harvest figures are in, and things are looking oilier than a Turkish wrestling bout. In simple terms, there’s 564,500 litres of olive oil on the market, a great result for a low year in the two-year / high-low yield cycle. Against 2020 results, it’s more than 320,000 litres more, which AAP says is down to a forward-looking replanting program initiated in 2018.

Sports Entertainment Group Limited (SEG) says the purchase of the 4KQ 693AM Brisbane Commercial Radio Licence has been completed. The people of Brisbane can now look forward to hearing about all their favourite sports, sounding like it’s being shouted at them from the bottom of a tin can. How good’s AM radio!?

And lastly McPhersons (ASX:MCP) has announced the completion of a “unique strategic alliance” with Chemist Warehouse, after it sent Australia’s Cheapest Chemists™ 14,223,817 fully paid ordinary shares in MCP at a value of $0.88 each. No word yet on exactly how much those will end up being discounted once they hit stores across the country, or whether Chemist Warehouse will offer its “We’ll match any competitor’s price” promotion.