Ouch. The ASX has closed the third trading day of the year with a melt down of 2.74%.
The tech sector continues to spiral out of control, leading the way with a ~6.5% dip due to the release of minutes from the Fed’s December meeting overnight.
This meeting resulted in a decision by policy makers to lift rates sooner than expected and cut its COVID-19 stimulus.
“Almost all participants agreed that it would likely be appropriate to initiate balance sheet runoff at some point after the first increase in the target range for the federal funds rate,” the minutes said.
Afterpay (ASX:APT) got absolutely monstered with a ~10.57% fall, followed by Wisetech Global (ASX:WTC) at ~6.59%, Xero (ASX:XRO) at ~5.70%, and Computershare (ASX:CPU) at ~1.48%.
All 11 sectors have ended the day in the red, despite uranium stocks waking up in the green during early trade after analysts predicted political unrest in Kazakhstan – where around 43% of the world’s uranium comes from — could send uranium prices soaring.
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 | % | VOLUME |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T3D | 333D Limited | 0.0045 | 50% | 24,106,699 |
| ANL | Amani Gold Ltd | 0.0015 | 50% | 9,830,000 |
| WOO | Wooboard Tech Ltd | 0.0015 | 50% | 1,200,000 |
| CT1 | Constellation Tech | 0.008 | 33% | 2,213,738 |
| LRV | Larvottoresources | 0.1575 | 31% | 2,762,586 |
| CCE | Carnegie Cln Energy | 0.0025 | 25% | 3,420,795 |
| CGB | Cann Global Limited | 0.0025 | 25% | 146,666 |
| EVE | EVE Health Group Ltd | 0.005 | 25% | 1,327,367 |
| GTG | Genetic Technologies | 0.005 | 25% | 2,767,292 |
| SBR | Sabre Resources | 0.005 | 25% | 318,509 |
| E25 | Element 25 Ltd | 1.45 | 21% | 1,221,314 |
| ATH | Alterity Therap Ltd | 0.024 | 20% | 26,658,397 |
| AWJ | Auric Mining | 0.125 | 19% | 30,000 |
| M8S | M8 Sustainable | 0.019 | 19% | 3,149,864 |
| NIM | Nimyresourceslimited | 0.29 | 16% | 680,624 |
| EVZ | EVZ Limited | 0.15 | 15% | 697 |
| WSR | Westar Resources | 0.115 | 15% | 15,000 |
| ENT | Enterprise Metals | 0.016 | 14% | 5,937 |
| TMX | Terrain Minerals | 0.008 | 14% | 70,000 |
| MQR | Marquee Resource Ltd | 0.165 | 14% | 27,030,959 |
| CAQ | CAQ Holdings Ltd | 0.025 | 14% | 3,800 |
| LYN | Lycaonresources | 0.42 | 14% | 182,226 |
| AMT | Allegra Orthopaedics | 0.17 | 13% | 646 |
| BOC | Bougainville Copper | 0.355 | 13% | 63,338 |
| AIV | Activex Limited | 0.063 | 13% | 80,000 |
Larvotto Resources (ASX:LRV) climbed with news that plans to kick start lithium and base metal exploration through a soil geochemical sampling project at its Eyre Project will commence as soon as Native Title clearance has been received.
Next in line was manganese miner Element 25 (ASX:25) following an announcement stating it had completed maintenance and engineer improvement works at the site of its Butcherbird Manganese Project and hitting a record daily production result of 1209t of manganese concentrate on January 3.
Biotech company Alterity Therapeutics (ASX:ATH) surged after it revealed the United States Patent and Trademark Office had granted the company a new patent for compounds in relation to neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
And Marquee Resources (ASX:MQR) hit ‘outstanding’ high-grade copper of up to 18.5% and gold of up to 10.4 g/t at its Lone Star Project in Washington State, US where results from the first two diamond holes as part of a 6,000m have been received.
TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS
Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.
| CODE | COMPANY | PRICE | % | VOLUME |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EN1 | Engage:Bdr Limited | 0.002 | -33% | 257,500 |
| ALT | Analytica Limited | 0.0015 | -25% | 250,000 |
| MLS | Metals Australia | 0.0015 | -25% | 5,084,459 |
| KEY | KEY Petroleum | 0.002 | -20% | 125,000 |
| RTG | RTG Mining Inc. | 0.11 | -19% | 543,492 |
| LCT | Living Cell Tech. | 0.005 | -17% | 11,795,796 |
| YPB | YPB Group Ltd | 0.0025 | -17% | 10,500,788 |
| NMT | Neometals Ltd | 1.44 | -16% | 5,946,249 |
| PNX | PNX Metals Limited | 0.006 | -14% | 198,900 |
| OPL | Opyl Limited | 0.1 | -13% | 367,270 |
| CAV | Carnavale Resources | 0.007 | -13% | 3,410,254 |
| DDD | 3D Resources Limited | 0.0035 | -13% | 516,219 |
| INL | Innlanz Limited | 0.053 | -12% | 31,184 |
| CTT | Cettire | 3.25 | -11% | 660,615 |
| PNI | Pinnacle Investment | 13.95 | -11% | 607,834 |
| FBR | FBR Ltd | 0.04 | -11% | 3,910,664 |
| XST | Xstate Resources | 0.004 | -11% | 16,372,163 |
| ID8 | Identitii Limited | 0.105 | -11% | 522,001 |
| APT | Afterpay Limited | 72.07 | -10% | 1,139,047 |
| RCW | Rightcrowd | 0.22 | -10% | 82,951 |
| SPT | Splitit | 0.265 | -10% | 2,531,206 |
| AFW | Applyflow Limited | 0.0045 | -10% | 6,019,000 |
| MRQ | Mrg Metals Limited | 0.009 | -10% | 1,160,000 |
| PFE | Panteraminerals | 0.195 | -9% | 399,499 |
| SMX | Security Matters | 0.245 | -9% | 10,000 |
ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY MISSED
Calima Enery (ASX:CE1) kickstarted its initial 2022 oil and gas drilling campaign at the Brooks Project in Alberta, Canada which comprises the multi-stage fracture stimulation of two wells at Brooks (Pisces #1 and #2), and the drilling of an additional Glauconitic well at Brooks (Pisces #3).
Cancer diagnostics tech company Rhythm Biosciences (ASX:RHY) has raised $6.35 million to accelerate commercialisation and entry into the large US and broader international markets. The company says this will support the scaling up of manufacturing capability.
Mining activities have started at Firefinchs’ (ASX:FFX) Morila Super Pit in Mali, where the company has plans to pre-strip waste from the first stage of the site, ahead of ore mining set for Q2, 2022.
Red Mountain Mining (ASX:RMX) confirmed heavy rare earths at its Mt Mansbridge Project in the Eastern Kimberley region of Western Australia. Assays from the Solo prospect have returned hits of up to 5m at 0.316% total rare earth oxide with an average of 66.62% heavy rare earth oxide.
Wide Open Agriculture (ASX:WOA) has signed a distribution agreement with Hong-Kong based Metro Alliance to have Dirty Clean Food’s Oat Milk available for purchase in Hong Kong and Macau. Dirty Clean Food’s Oat Milk is the world’s first oat milk that is carbon neutral and produced with regeneratively farmed oats.
TRADING HALTS
The following companies are in trading halts and are expected out in the next few trading days:
Iris Metals (ASX:IR1) – proposed material acquisition
Hiremii (ASX:HMI) – capital raising
Connected IO (ASX:CIO) – vote on asset sale
333D (ASX:T3D) – ASX price query