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).

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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).

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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.”

 

TRADING HALTS

The following companies went into a halt on Monday and are expected to recommence trading over the next few days.

Rectifier technologies (ASX:RFT) – pending analysis of receipt.

WA Kaolin (ASX:WAK) – pending capital raise

iCandy Interactive (ASX:ICI)  – pending acquisition

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