Closing Bell: ASX200 falls, small caps gain, petrol set to go psycho

The S&P/ASX200 is about seven points lower on Monday after a day of choppy trade, heavily impacted by some large cap hits, like Magellan (down about 10%) and an earlier whack for the big four banks after ANZ put out a profit warning.

But there were a few brighter rays in afternoon trade, as travel stocks found demand following news that Australia’s borders are set to open to double-vaxxed tourists on February 21.

Totally unfazed by Mondays, the microcap S&P/ASX Emerging Companies (ASX:XEC) index gained about 0.5%.

Supply is low, demand is high

Elsewhere, you may’ve clocked that oil prices gained for a seventh successive week, to be trading near seven-year highs.

Nymex crude rose 6.3% last week.

Commsec says the oil price that matters for Australian road-ragers is the Singapore gasoline 95 price – and that’s hitting more than 13 year highs.

Courtesy of global crude prices and a weaker Australian dollar… Australian motorists are paying more for petrol than ever before.

Filling up the car is apparently our single biggest weekly splurge. CommSec’s chief optimist, Craig James says the garden variety Aussie household paid a near record $241 on petrol alone last week.

On the positive side… well, actually, I got nothing

OPEC+ actually wants to lift production, but for many and sundry reasons lots of members just won’t be able to meet the quotas.

Then you’ve got Russia (maybe) planning to eat Ukraine, record cold weather in the States, rising militant attacks in the Emirates and a global bump in post-the-worst-of-Omicron activity…

Ipso facto: it’s going to get ugly.

On domestic shores, retail data out today showed spending at pubs, clubs, cafes and disco’s is up almost 22% on this time last year, and we’ve bought about 18% more clothes and shoes too.

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

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

Code	Company	Price	%	Volume
MAY	Melbana Energy Ltd	0.064	73.0%	151,296,734
WOO	Wooboard Tech Ltd	0.0015	50.0%	3,006,209
MRQ	Mrg Metals Limited	0.015	36.4%	99,806,664
CPM	Coopermetalslimited	0.625	35.9%	4,421,448
CRM	Carbon Minerals Ltd	0.415	33.9%	24,331
SHH	Shree Minerals Ltd	0.024	33.3%	66,692,843
MRR	Minrex Resources Ltd	0.086	32.3%	51,026,775
PLY	Playside Studios	1.3	28.1%	5,758,315
CCE	Carnegie Cln Energy	0.0025	25.0%	1,830,367
MLS	Metals Australia	0.0025	25.0%	3,398,417
OEX	Oilex Ltd	0.005	25.0%	8,974,646
PCL	Pancontinental Energ	0.005	25.0%	314,047,163
YPB	YPB Group Ltd	0.0025	25.0%	1,472,966
CTT	Cettire	2.85	21.8%	2,557,019
NCL	Netccentric Ltd	0.12	20.0%	43,332
ZMM	Zimi Ltd	0.012	20.0%	933,211
QML	Qmines Limited	0.29	18.4%	84,532
BLZ	Blaze Minerals Ltd	0.052	18.2%	11,641,344
LNY	Laneway Res Ltd	0.0065	18.2%	13,014,644
AKN	Auking Mining Ltd	0.2	17.6%	4,101,812
BMR	Ballymore Resources	0.2	17.6%	28,156
PVL	Powerhouse Ven Ltd	0.11	17.0%	534,189
RHT	Resonance Health	0.175	16.7%	1,346,745
CT1	Constellation Tech	0.007	16.7%	213,568
DDD	3D Resources Limited	0.0035	16.7%	1,864,727

Cettire (ASX:CTT) is busting into China after revealing it’s in bed with e-commerce daddy JD.com. With the Middle Kingdom’s middle class driving demand for a spike in personal luxury goods the market is set to be worth some $150bn by 2025, and if my math serves me – that’s about 25% of the $600bn global pie. Cettire is up about 22%.

Among stocks with news, game development company PlaySide Studios (ASX:PLY) led the pack, following a market update on what the company called its first Web 3.0 project.

Through its Dumb Ways to Die gaming franchise (acquired in September last year), PLY announced the early results at its BEANS NFT launch last Friday, saying it had booked “$8.38m in net revenue after all third-party fees”.

PLY climbed 29% today.

Leading the resources pack was market minnow Carbon Minerals (ASX:CRM), which operates a coal seam gas project in the Gunnedah Basin, NSW.

Shares in the ~$5m market cap company, which usually trades on low volumes, jumped by around 34% today on no news.

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

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

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

Code	Company	Price	%	Volume
LBY	Laybuy Group Holding	0.145	-17.1%	6,769,078
SMX	Security Matters	0.195	-17.0%	109,506
PVS	Pivotal Systems	0.535	-14.2%	146,820
FFC	Farmaforce Ltd	0.043	-14.0%	108,878
TOU	Tlou Energy Ltd	0.04	-13.0%	298,588
AFW	Applyflow Limited	0.0035	-12.5%	3,034,713
NOR	Norwood Systems Ltd.	0.014	-12.5%	307,070
XST	Xstate Resources	0.0035	-12.5%	1,104,410
ASP	Aspermont Limited	0.021	-12.5%	1,463,333
HIQ	Hitiq Limited	0.11	-12.0%	124,141
TSL	Titanium Sands Ltd	0.022	-12.0%	307,054
MM1	Midasmineralsltd	0.15	-11.8%	7,291
SPQ	Superior Resources	0.0425	-11.5%	23,422,452
GME	GME Resources Ltd	0.062	-11.4%	166,487
ASO	Aston Minerals Ltd	0.16	-11.1%	15,686,850
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.008	-11.1%	79,411
TI1	Tombador Iron	0.041	-10.9%	791,217
GIB	Gibb River Diamonds	0.066	-10.8%	282,437
MFG	Magellan Fin Grp Ltd	16.51	-10.8%	5,638,551
LAW	Lawfinance Ltd	0.58	-10.8%	37,743
HPC	Thehydration	0.255	-10.5%	117,851
AXI	Axiom Properties	0.068	-10.5%	91,668
AER	Aeeris Ltd	0.135	-10.0%	35,000
MOB	Mobilicom Ltd	0.045	-10.0%	322,861

ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

The Texan-based mob looking to frack the hell out of onshore oil in the Kimberley, Black Mountain Energy (ASX:BME) has appointed Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes as an alternate director for Rhett Bennett.

BME shares are about 3.5% lower on Monday as WA environmental officials consider its fracking application.

Zumwalt-Forbes is the CEO of Black Mountain Carbon Lock, a private carbon negative company. She’s an engineer with ~10 years experience in acquiring, financing and developing greenfield and brownfield natural resources projects globally.

The WA Environmental Protection Agency is currently considering BME’s application for fracking at its Valhalla project in WA’s Canning Basin.

Chemicals, logistics and waste management company DGL (ASX:DGL) has acquired an industrial property in the established Brisbane industrial precinct of Rocklea, for $11 million.

The site provides easy access to major arterial networks including the Ipswich Motorway and is part of the company’s strong focus on owning its own sites.

DGL founder and CEO Simon Henry said owning its sites is better for the long-term investment in capital-intensive infrastructure required for the safe production and management of chemicals.

Drilling has returned Gold Mountain (ASX:GMN)‘s highest-grade gold assays to date, with multi-element hits suggesting its PNG Mt Wipi project could be on the periphery of a chunky porphyry system.

Chief executive Tim Cameron said, “these gold intercepts and associated alteration contained within broad zones of mineralisation are in my opinion very significant and build my confidence that we are getting closer to a major find.”