Closing Bell: ASX struggles for traction as Kuniko moons into the stratosphere

Local stocks lost ground on Thursday as a tone of caution emerged in Asian trade, ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s annual symposium, which is set to kick off on Friday night.

The ASX 200 finished 0.54% lower and in a theme that has held constant throughout the week, it was outpaced by the microcap Emerging Markets index which traded flat.

While the broader market struggled for traction, most of the action centred around Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL) spinoff Kuniko Ltd (ASX:KNI), which followed up its big ASX debut on Tuesday by going absolutely ballistic in Thursday trade.

TODAY’S BIGGEST WINNERS

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Code	Company	Price	%	Volume
KNI	Kuniko Ltd	1.895	147.7%	18,672,500
OEX	Oilex Ltd	0.004	33.3%	5,950,000
XTC	Xantippe Res Ltd	0.002	33.3%	101,850
LNY	Laneway Res Ltd	0.005	25.0%	4,168,626
VIC	Victory Mines Ltd	0.0025	25.0%	15,210,356
BMM	Balkan Mining	0.65	23.8%	775,085
BMO	Bastion Minerals	0.21	23.5%	4,304,543
ACP	Audalia Res Ltd	0.016	23.1%	179,900
PAB	Patrys Limited	0.044	22.2%	27,575,736
ALG	Ardentleisuregrpltd	1.255	20.7%	12,949,660
TKM	Trek Metals Ltd	0.082	20.6%	9,123,395
DDT	DataDot Technology	0.009	20.0%	11,752,580
EPM	Eclipse Metals	0.036	20.0%	34,873,808
DLC	Delecta Limited	0.006	20.0%	2,777,656
OVT	Ovato Limited	0.003	20.0%	4,984,687
SWP	Swoop Holdings Ltd	1.53	19.1%	556,136
FEL	Fe Limited	0.073	17.7%	9,002,786
PO3	Purifloh Ltd	1.295	17.7%	2,792
ATR	Astron Corp Ltd	0.45	16.9%	1,912
AMO	Ambertech Limited	0.32	16.4%	2,407,866
BID	Bill Identity Ltd	0.51	15.9%	746,725
LSA	Lachlan Star Ltd	0.03	15.4%	8,823,531
FCL	Fineos Corp Hold PLC	4.24	15.2%	1,316,861
BKL	Blackmores Limited	91.69	14.9%	221,628
PAK	Pacific American Hld	0.016	14.3%	577,973

Like Vulcan, Kuniko has zero-carbon ambitions to develop its resources projects, which are based in Norway.

After raising pre-IPO funds at 20c, KNI shares closed on Tuesday at 85c for a day-one gain of more than 300%.

Following a lull yesterday, the stock mooned again today on a surge in volume, which saw it briefly climb to more than $3 before going into a trading halt at $1.90 just before 3:30pm AEST.

Early-stage soil sampling — which is what Kuniko is now doing at its Skuterud cobalt project and the Vangrøfta copper project — historically hasn’t been a catalyst for 10-bagger returns within two days of listing.

The surging volumes for KNI shares gave rise to some outsized gains before the ASX put a stop to things just prior to the closing bell.

TODAY’S BIGGEST LOSERS

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Code	Company	Price	%	Volume
VIA	Viagold Rare Earth	0.049	-27.9%	200
CLZ	Classic Min Ltd	0.0015	-25.0%	138,568,622
MLS	Metals Australia	0.0015	-25.0%	7,853,588
YPB	YPB Group Ltd	0.0015	-25.0%	2,200,000
APX	Appen Limited	10.92	-21.0%	9,534,965
ARO	Astro Resources NL	0.004	-20.0%	594,328
T3D	333D Limited	0.002	-20.0%	2,488
VPR	Volt Power Group	0.002	-20.0%	10
CCG	Comms Group Ltd	0.083	-16.2%	2,702,729
SEG	Sports Ent Grp Ltd	0.21	-16.0%	2,375
WFL	Wellfully Limited	0.105	-16.0%	6,834,146
CAV	Carnavale Resources	0.006	-14.3%	2,730,000
CVS	Cervantes Corp Ltd	0.006	-14.3%	1,117,350
SIX	Sprintex Ltd	0.06	-14.3%	42,243
FTC	Fintech Chain Ltd	0.064	-13.5%	98,973
DDD	3D Resources Limited	0.0035	-12.5%	2,970,626
BIR	BIR Financial Ltd	0.021	-12.5%	47,619
LNK	Link Admin Hldg	4.52	-12.2%	8,284,909
A2M	The A2 Milk Company	6.05	-11.8%	25,999,514
AZS	Azure Minerals	0.315	-11.3%	4,044,787
SBW	Shekel Brainweigh	0.12	-11.1%	103,453
IEC	Intra Energy Corp	0.008	-11.1%	70,056
CYQ	Cycliq Group Ltd	0.025	-10.7%	2,680,132
IFL	IOOF Holdings Ltd	4.545	-10.5%	9,652,972
GAS	State GAS Limited	0.39	-10.3%	963,605

ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY’VE MISSED

Printing business Ovato (ASX:OVT) announced the NZ Commerce Commission cleared the sale of its Retail Distribution business in New Zealand. The sale remains on track to be completed by the end of the month.

Victory Mines (ASX:VIC) announced further drilling results from its latest drilling campaign at its Coogee gold project. The company says the results were highly encouraging including 22m at 1.11g/t gold and 0.73% copper and 32m at 1.44g/t gold.

BNPL company Openpay (ASX:OPY) signed a partnership with treasury and payables solution Kyriba to offer Openpay’s B2b platform to Kyriba’s clients. The company said this is the first step to taking its platform into the USA.

IDP Education (ASX:IEL) says it’s no big deal its biggest shareholder was parting ways, at least in a direct sense. Education Australia sold a stake worth 15% of the company and transferred the rest of its shares to its own Australian university shareholders – a step the company says will facilitate continued growth.

Battery metals play Argo Exploration (ASX:AXT) announced it would continue to hold its stake in Pantheon Resources despite the latter company set to be removed for failing to pay annual listing fees. Argo, which itself is facing delisting on February 5 next year for being suspended for 2 years, says it has reviewed several potential new projects but none offered the same upside compared to Pantheon.