- In the arvo session, the ASX held on to early gains… by a thread
- Nervy investor/trader eyes now await updates from the US on yet more inflation data and tariff announcements
- Amid the turmoil, wouldn’t you know it, gold stole the show
After chugging along without too much drama this morning, the ASX was the Little Bourse that Could this arvo, getting over a hump and eventually carrying its stocks to a +0.16% win. Not as good as it was potentially looking at lunch but a better result than yesterday.
Globally, shares are looking shakier.
The S&P and Dow Jones indexes closed 0.3% lower overnight, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq index shed 0.5%, while the FTSE 100 was down 0.27%.
Asian shares – in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea – dropped on Friday, too, while Taiwan’s stock index hit its lowest level since September as technology companies weighed pretty much everywhere, including on the ASX.
Markets are jittery ahead of US President Donald Trump’s plan to announce reciprocal tariffs on April 2. Yesterday, the big orange one (Trump, not Bitcoin) announced levies on imports of all automobiles into the US.
The next read-out of US inflation data (this time, PCE – Personal Consumption Expenditure) is also on the cards later tonight (AEDT).
Traders and investors, concerned about what happens next with inflation and the US economy, as well as potential recession, are scrambling for their playbooks on how to cope with the difficult landscape. In fact, deVere Group’s Nigel Green has some considered thoughts on the matter here > How investors should prepare for the possibility of a US recession.
ASX MARKET NEWS
With yet more personal best prices (US$3091 per ounce; AUD$4917) gold stole the headlines today. And that means on the ASX, big gun gold-focused companies generally had a very good day indeed.
Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) closed today with a 6.93% rise, behemoth Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) finished +3.85% and Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) jumped 3.30%.
Perth Mint’s gold ETF, Gold Corporation (ASX:PMGOLD), meanwhile ended up 1.65%, while Newmont Corporation (ASX:NEM) had a +2.86% kinda day.
A bit further down the food chain, New Murchison Gold (ASX:NMG) had a good day too, rising more than 13%. Last week the company received firm commitments from existing and new strategic, institutional and sophisticated investors for a placement of $16.5m at 1.3c per share.
The placement was strongly supported by major shareholder Westgold Resources with a subscription of $2.8 million, resulting in a shareholding of 16.22% post-placement. It’s planning to become a miner via WGX’s processing infrastructure this year.
See Resources Top 5 for more.
As mentioned yesterday, Goldman Sachs has released a new prediction that the record-breaking run in the yellow metal isn’t about to slow down any time soon. In fact, the US investment bank reckons it’s set to turn on the gas even more, noting the medium-term price risks for gold “remain skewed to the upside” and “in tail-risk scenarios, gold can exceed US$4200 by end-2025”.
Silver’s also hovering around 13-year highs at US$34.44/oz.
Gold may be making the moves, but silver has Josh Chiat’s heart over at Gold Digger, talking why experts warn you should keep a level head around #silversqueeze promoters.
ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS
| Code | Description | Last | % | Volume | MktCap |
|---|
| BUY | Bounty Oil & Gas NL | 0.003 | 50% | 800,328 | $3,122,944 |
| EDE | Eden Inv Ltd | 0.0015 | 50% | 500,498 | $4,109,881 |
| VML | Vital Metals Limited | 0.003 | 50% | 2,753,681 | $11,790,134 |
| VPR | Voltgroupltd | 0.0015 | 50% | 5,066,000 | $16,074,312 |
| GHY | Gold Hydrogen | 0.675 | 27% | 1,168,506 | $84,662,200 |
| RNV | Renerve Limited | 0.14 | 27% | 5,316,761 | $12,039,250 |
| STK | Strickland Metals | 0.1 | 25% | 15,263,267 | $176,593,179 |
| FFF | Forbidden Foods | 0.01 | 25% | 7,358,651 | $5,696,816 |
| HLX | Helix Resources | 0.0025 | 25% | 471,200 | $6,728,387 |
| HRE | Heavy Rare Earths | 0.023 | 21% | 1,177,817 | $3,952,644 |
| AVE | Avecho Biotech Ltd | 0.006 | 20% | 43,516,485 | $15,846,485 |
| TSL | Titanium Sands Ltd | 0.006 | 20% | 547,015 | $11,683,736 |
| BC8 | Black Cat Syndicate | 0.94 | 20% | 12,175,525 | $525,629,474 |
| NUZ | Neurizon Therapeutic | 0.125 | 19% | 402,802 | $51,692,105 |
| CRS | Caprice Resources | 0.086 | 18% | 15,583,582 | $36,918,027 |
| ELT | Elementos Limited | 0.08 | 18% | 1,199,760 | $16,056,966 |
| TOK | Tolu Minerals | 0.935 | 17% | 85,953 | $90,652,897 |
| ADX | ADX Energy Ltd | 0.028 | 17% | 2,297,250 | $13,804,543 |
| AYT | Austin Metals Ltd | 0.007 | 17% | 1,032,240 | $7,945,148 |
| BIT | Biotron Limited | 0.0035 | 17% | 198,750 | $2,707,148 |
| IXR | Ionic Rare Earths | 0.007 | 17% | 6,288,453 | $31,430,570 |
| KGD | Kula Gold Limited | 0.007 | 17% | 4,990,584 | $5,527,522 |
| ODE | Odessa Minerals Ltd | 0.007 | 17% | 116,029 | $9,597,195 |
| REC | Rechargemetals | 0.014 | 17% | 3,137,414 | $3,077,880 |
| KNB | Koonenberrygold | 0.045 | 15% | 9,622,677 | $36,697,212 |
Today’s best performing small cap stocks:
Strickland Metals (ASX: STK) is up 25% today after announcing that a fifth diamond rig has arrived and started drilling at its 100%-owned ~7.40Moz AuEq Rogozna Gold and Base Metals Project in Serbia.
STK said the rig would initially focus on testing the Obradov Potok Prospect, where previous exploration defined laterally extensive multi-element surface geochemical anomalism, outcropping hydrothermal alteration and spatially associated induced polarisation chargeability anomalism at shallow depths.
Forbidden Foods (ASX: FFF) is also up 25% after announcing board changes including appointment of Sesión Tequila co-founder and managing director Tim Freeburn as a non-executive director.
Non-executive chairman Albert Cheok and non-executive director Nathan Quailey, have resigned, with FFF saying the resignations were agreed on jointly with both holding several other roles.Non-executive director Daniel Rootes will be Interim non-executive chairman, while the board “advances its executive search initiatives”. The changes come into effect on April 1.
And Avecho Biotechnology (ASX:AVE) rose 20% after receiving the initial US$3 million licensing fee from Sandoz AG as part of a recent licensing deal for the commercial rights to its proprietary cannabidiol (CBD) product in Australia.
Under the deal Sandoz has exclusive commercial rights for Avecho’s phase III CBD capsule for insomnia in Australia for 10 years and is eligible for subsequent milestone and royalty payments.
ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS
Today’s worst performing small cap stocks:
| Code | Name | Price | % Change | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|
| VFX | Visionflex Group Ltd | 0.002 | -33% | 200,000 | $10,103,581 |
| CP8 | Canadian Phosphate | 0.025 | -29% | 850,000 | $10,736,618 |
| BP8 | BPH Global Ltd | 0.003 | -25% | 66,667 | $2,433,233 |
| CYQ | Cycliq Group Ltd | 0.003 | -25% | 2,010,604 | $1,842,067 |
| SFG | Seafarms Group Ltd | 0.0015 | -25% | 513,109 | $9,673,198 |
| FAU | First Au Ltd | 0.002 | -20% | 936 | $5,179,983 |
| HAR | Harangaresources | 0.065 | -18% | 1,670,452 | $7,211,071 |
| WWG | Wiseway Group | 0.15 | -17% | 23,610 | $30,123,575 |
| AUR | Auris Minerals Ltd | 0.005 | -17% | 900,053 | $2,859,756 |
| CCO | The Calmer Co Int | 0.005 | -17% | 2,463 | $15,323,228 |
| HTA | Hutchison | 0.02 | -17% | 324,474 | $325,740,206 |
| IPB | IPB Petroleum Ltd | 0.005 | -17% | 4,559,119 | $4,238,418 |
| JAV | Javelin Minerals Ltd | 0.0025 | -17% | 12,114,410 | $18,138,447 |
| TON | Triton Min Ltd | 0.005 | -17% | 3,250 | $9,410,332 |
| ACR | Acrux Limited | 0.023 | -15% | 477,386 | $10,997,510 |
| EGR | Ecograf Limited | 0.32 | -15% | 1,586,174 | $170,299,432 |
| SNX | Sierra Nevada Gold | 0.018 | -14% | 154,889 | $3,429,653 |
| KPO | Kalina Power Limited | 0.006 | -14% | 2,145 | $20,221,206 |
| MGU | Magnum Mining & Exp | 0.006 | -14% | 900,000 | $5,665,530 |
| OLI | Oliver'S Real Food | 0.006 | -14% | 42,501 | $3,785,123 |
| ROG | Red Sky Energy. | 0.006 | -14% | 640,407 | $37,955,590 |
| SPQ | Superior Resources | 0.006 | -14% | 186,388 | $15,189,047 |
| TMS | Tennant Minerals Ltd | 0.012 | -14% | 6,549 | $13,382,466 |
| TYX | Tyranna Res Ltd | 0.006 | -14% | 1,150,000 | $23,015,477 |
| BMG | BMG Resources Ltd | 0.013 | -13% | 12,852,444 | $12,575,957 |
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
West Australian gold explorer Caprice Resources (ASX:CRS) has entered a trading halt today, citing pending exploration results and response to a price query. Shares in Caprice climbed nearly 18% this morning before the company entered its pause.
Caprice garnered the market’s interest earlier this year in February after sharing several high-grade gold intercepts from its Island project, including a peak hit of 34.9g/t gold.
The company’s success at the drill bit comes in a gold environment where the spot price trades above US$3000/oz, a major premium on this time last year.
ReNerve’s (ASX:RNV) NervAlign Nerve Cuff has shown to significantly reduce post-operative pain in foot and ankle peripheral nerve surgeries, with 93% of patients expressing willingness to undergo the procedure again. The study, presented at the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons conference, revealed improved outcomes and lower pain scores for those treated with the Nerve Cuff compared to those who did not use it.
Compumedics (ASX:CMP) has received a $5.7 million order from Hangzhou Normal University in China for its Neuroscan Orion LifeSpan MEG system, bringing total revenue from MEG installations in China to ~$20 million. The system, expected to ship in early 2026, will further strengthen Compumedics’ position as a leading supplier of brain imaging technology in the growing Chinese market.
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Caprice Resources, ReNerve, Compumedics and Impact Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
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