Closing Bell: ASX touches record high as Novonix surges 30pc; Cuscal's IPO debut disappoints

ASX touches record high, closes in on 8,500
Real estate and resources lead market gains
Cuscal’s IPO debut was… disappointing

The Australian share market has made a strong start to the week, touching a new record as the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index rose by 0.28%. The index is now within striking distance of the 8,500-point milestone.

Investors were generally feeling optimistic on Monday, with the broader market driven by gains across most sectors.

The real estate sector was the standout, with Mirvac (ASX:MGR) leading the charge with a 4% gain.

Resources fared well, with most mining giants rising. Energy stocks also enjoyed a nice boost, tracking higher oil prices amid the ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Meanwhile, a number of stocks made significant announcements today.

Car-leasing company SG Fleet (ASX:SGF) soared by 20% after Pacific Equity Partners made a $3.50-a-share takeover bid.

Selfwealth (ASX:SWF), the online retail broker, gained 6% after Bell Financial raised its bid for the company.

In the resources sector, battery materials supplier Novonix (ASX:NVX) skyrocketed 30% after securing a major offtake agreement with PowerCo.

Market debutant Cuscal (ASX:CCL), the payments infrastructure firm, launched its $337 million IPO but was struggling out of the gates.

Shares closed around 8% lower than the $2.50 listing price. Some analysts reckon the company might face challenges, including government crackdowns on card payment surcharges.

Read more here about upcoming IPOs here: ASX IPOs suddenly come alive with upcoming biotech and fintech listings

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Today’s best performing small cap stocks:

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

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
SFG	Seafarms Group Ltd	0.002	33%	555,769	$7,254,899
TMK	TMK Energy Limited	0.002	100%	44,979,707	$9,325,565
VPR	Voltgroupltd	0.002	50%	3,241,666	$10,716,208
RML	Resolution Minerals	0.002	33%	54,039	$2,415,033
DEV	Devex Resources Ltd	0.145	32%	4,199,071	$48,585,974
EWC	Energy World Corpor.	0.021	31%	1,481,325	$49,262,740
BEL	Bentley Capital Ltd	0.013	30%	200,000	$761,279
SOC	Soco Corporation	0.115	28%	160,001	$12,504,569
SP3	Specturltd	0.019	27%	825,566	$4,484,350
PCL	Pancontinental Energ	0.018	25%	24,026,870	$113,842,202
BUY	Bounty Oil & Gas NL	0.005	25%	2,948,889	$5,994,004
CUL	Cullen Resources	0.005	25%	500,000	$2,773,607
ERA	Energy Resources	0.003	25%	7,274,415	$810,792,482
ROG	Red Sky Energy.	0.010	25%	30,388,137	$43,377,818
VFX	Visionflex Group Ltd	0.005	25%	250,000	$13,421,298
5EA	5Eadvanced	0.087	24%	597,720	$23,508,565
HRE	Heavy Rare Earths	0.036	24%	138,173	$2,443,979
PAR	Paradigm Bio.	0.325	20%	3,891,205	$94,485,614
G11	G11 Resources Ltd	0.018	20%	1,728,253	$14,499,332
IFG	Infocusgroup Hldltd	0.048	20%	25,005,016	$4,351,041
SBW	Shekel Brainweigh	0.024	20%	200,000	$4,561,225
SGA	Sarytogan	0.099	19%	805,466	$12,427,866
C29	C29Metalslimited	0.125	19%	654,702	$18,289,765
IR1	Irismetals	0.315	19%	417,785	$36,864,145

Livehire (ASX:LVH), a recruitment tech company, jumped after Humanforce Holdings, an Accel-KKR portfolio firm, made an all-cash, unconditional takeover bid for LiveHire at $0.045 per share. Humanforce already owns 87.76% of LiveHire. Independent Director Andrew Rutherford has recommended that shareholders accept the offer.

Selfwealth (ASX:SWF) also jumped after Bell Financial sweetened its takeover offer to 25 cents per share. Bell had received a competing offer from AxiCorp Financial Services, which made a non-binding bid of 23 cents per share.

Streamplay Studio (ASX:SP8)

has agreed to acquire Noodlecake Studios, a profitable Canadian indie gaming company known for its 60+ games and 270 million downloads. The deal expands Streamplay’s reach in North America and strengthens its global gaming presence. Noodlecake’s successful monetisation strategies have generated more than $42 million.

Mantle Minerals (ASX:MTL) has confirmed gold mineralisation at Mount Berghaus following its first reverse circulation drilling program. The best intersections include 5m at 1.1g/t Au and 32m at 0.16g/t Au. The company said the new drilling suggests potential for commercial-grade gold mineralisation within Hemi-style igneous rocks.

Novonix (ASX:NVX) has signed a binding offtake agreement with PowerCo SE for a minimum of 32,000 tonnes of high-performance synthetic graphite material, to be supplied from 2027 to 2031. Novonix is currently developing its Riverside facility in North America, which will begin commercial production in 2025 and expand to meet customer demand.

Metal Bank (ASX:MBK) has reported significant high-grade graphite results from its Millennium Cu-Co-Au Project in Queensland. The company said te-assaying of 2022 drilling samples returned good intersections, including 56m at 18.29% graphite and 49m at 12.97% graphite from surface. Graphite was found over a 2km strike length, extending across areas previously thought to be barren waste rock.

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Today’s worst performing small cap stocks:

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

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
RBR	RBR Group Ltd	0.001	-50%	5,000,000	$3,718,809
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.001	-33%	5,481,337	$9,296,169
NRZ	Neurizer Ltd	0.002	-33%	543,027	$6,543,358
CZN	Corazon Ltd	0.003	-25%	10,698,439	$2,671,622
H2G	Greenhy2 Limited	0.003	-25%	471,091	$2,392,737
KP2	Kore Potash PLC	0.048	-21%	2,123,517	$41,604,316
LCY	Legacy Iron Ore	0.010	-20%	4,679,805	$122,566,349
COY	Coppermoly Limited	0.008	-20%	165,770	$7,076,574
PRM	Prominence Energy	0.004	-20%	75,000	$1,945,882
TSL	Titanium Sands Ltd	0.004	-20%	51,279	$11,058,736
1TT	Thrive Tribe Tech	0.003	-17%	38,454,462	$2,110,085
ALM	Alma Metals Ltd	0.005	-17%	176,074	$9,399,133
FIN	FIN Resources Ltd	0.005	-17%	83,821	$3,895,612
LML	Lincoln Minerals	0.005	-17%	7,660,370	$12,337,557
ERW	Errawarra Resources	0.061	-16%	26,115	$7,002,209
LYK	Lykosmetalslimited	0.016	-16%	15,000	$3,578,756
JLL	Jindalee Lithium Ltd	0.225	-15%	375,599	$18,911,911
GCM	Green Critical Min	0.006	-14%	11,368,117	$13,352,873
JAV	Javelin Minerals Ltd	0.003	-14%	675,000	$18,162,887
PR2	Piche Resources	0.120	-14%	1,400	$11,240,675
SRN	Surefire Rescs NL	0.003	-14%	1,560,000	$6,952,077
TMS	Tennant Minerals Ltd	0.012	-14%	1,034,511	$13,382,466
PGM	Platina Resources	0.019	-14%	836,203	$13,709,967
GRL	Godolphin Resources	0.013	-13%	415,198	$4,743,168

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Antipa Minerals’ (ASX:AZY) has discovered new near surface gold zones at its Minyari Dome gold-copper project in WA on the back of the latest Phase 2 drilling effort, with further assays pending ahead of a potential PFS next year.

As it moves toward a maiden resource in the first half of next year, Equinox Resources (ASX:EQN) has returned a suite of shallow titanium intercepts it says has strengthened the multi-commodity Mata da Corda project in Brazil.

OzAurum Resources (ASX:OZM) has reported rock chips up to 16.23 g/t gold in a newfound discovery at Heysen’s Find, near the old Patricia open pit mine north-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

Magnetic Resources (ASX:MAU) has returned more deep gold intersections below open pit with hits continuing to 1km downdip – the company is confident it’ll be able to add underground mining to open pit operations at its Lady Julie North 4 deposit (LJN4).

Arika Resources (ASX:ARI) is ramping up exploration to follow up on drilling that uncovered more than 25 targets across its WA-based Yundamindra project, in areas which haven’t been touched by drilling.

Aspiring near-term graphite producer Green Critical Minerals (ASX:GCM) has fulfilled the Stage 3 earn-in requirements to hold an 80% interest in the WA-based McIntosh graphite project, having spent over $4 million on exploration and development across the past two years.

GCM and Hexagon Energy Materials (ASX:HXG) are now working to set up a joint venture for the exploration and evaluation of graphite within the project area.

American West Metals (ASX:AW1) has wrapped up a broad spectrum, regional exploration program across its Storm copper project on Somerset Island in Nunavut, Canada.

Numerous new copper targets were defined across the 110km-long copper belt, highlighting the large-scale regional exploration potential. The prospects: Seabreeze, Hailstorm, Tornado and Tempest.

Up next? The company says it will focus on testing areas where the mineralisation has been focussed, and where deposits may have formed, with plenty of news flow to come as it works to complete a resource upgrade and development study.

With its sights set on a resource update early next year, Besra Gold (ASX:BEZ) has kicked off a drilling program comprising deep diamond drillholes.

Newly appointed North Barneo Gold managing director Matthew Antill led a review of the Jugan project, coming up with a new mining strategy that incorporates a smaller open pit at Jugan, followed up by up to a 400-metre-deep underground development using modern mining techniques.

The company believes advantages of this, compared to the 2013 feasibility study, are:

smaller area of surface disturbance required for open pit mine area, waste dumping area and tailings storage facility area;
much lower volume of tailings storage required with tailings utilised in cemented stope fill underground;
lower impact on local community landowners;
reduced environmental impact; and
less land acquisition required to execute the mining activities.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Antipa Minerals, Equinox Resources , OzAurum Resources, Magnetic Resources Green Critical Minerals, American West Metals, Besra Gold, and Arika Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.