• ASX 200 rises 0.33%%
  • Small cap index sheds -0.1%
  • Microba Life Sciences jumps 53%

The benchmark ASX 200 has closed Tuesday ahead 0.33%. The ASX Emerging Companies (XEC) index is down 0.1%. The Resources and Mining Sector’s led the gains at home.

US futures are holding fairly steady on Tuesday afternoon in Sydney after the trio of major US indices fell over early and lay there throughout a lacklustre Monday session.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng fell by more than 4% out of the gates as protests – unseen for some 30 years – gripped much of China.

The rest of the Asian-Pacific hood was soundly lower, laying a platform for today’s recovery. The Hang Seng has rediscovered 3.9% and Shanghai over 2%.

Despite the assurances of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s hold on power, with the world’s No. 2 economy slumping from lockdown to lockdown, XJP suddenly faces the biggest test of his tenure and there are no good options.

Commodities have fallen sharply as a result. Crude oil has already crashed circa -30% from its June peak – although you’ll not be seeing that when you fill up the Volvo – and any fanfare from stimulatory pledges to get the Chinese property engine roaring again have been – until this arvo – largely been swallowed whole by the astonishing scenes you’ll have been watching on social media.

While reports suggest those fires are starting to dim, even Warren Buffet’s safe house, Apple Inc (AAPL) is looking at a dearth of some 6 million iPhone Pros thanks to the running battles between workers and cops filmed via iPhone Pros, just a taste of the troubles besetting Apple manufacturer Foxconn’s plant in the deep south of China.

Whichever way XJP turns, ‘sovereign risk’ is now a factor he’ll need to add to any forward looking economic projections.

Tonight US investors will be looking ahead to a perfect sun shower of US economic data and more Fed Reserve banter.

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

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Microba Life Sciences (ASX:MAP), has jumped following revelations this morning that Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL) will invest circa $18m to acquire a 19.99% equity holding in MAP at $0.26 per share.

SHL says it is seeking to acquire options for a further 5% stake to gain a strategic toehold and voting rights in the company.

On Monday, Mamba Exploration (ASX:M24) revealed it’d entered into an option agreement to purchase 100% of the REE rights over four exploration licences covering an area of circa 560km2 of predominantly broad acreage grain farms surrounding the wheatbelt town of Hyden.

In addition to the area secured under the option agreement, Mamba has also applied for an additional five exploration licences bringing the total area covered by the Hyden project to over 1,300km2.

The stock price has kicked again today, with managing director Mike Dunbar saying how chuffed he is to have secured such an  “exceptionally high-grade clay REO project under option”.

Given most clay hosted REO mineralisation tends to be between 800 and 2,000ppm TREO, to have identified a zone of 46,700ppm, or 4.67% TREO in clays from the very limited sampling represents a very compelling target.

The preliminary technical due diligence completed so far has also identified a “significant gravity anomaly” just to the east of the area of limited REE sampling.

Dunbar reckons there’s significant potential in the area, not just for clay hosted REE deposits but hard rock REE potential as well.

And Sarama Resources (ASX:SRR) has hit 21m at 7.57g/t gold from surface in a recent drilling program which investigated five key target areas in a section of the MM prospect within the Tankoro deposit in West Africa.

“As per previous releases, these most recent results continue to illustrate the potential for new discoveries within the Tankoro Deposit’s very large and prospective mineralised corridor,” SRR president and CEO Andrew Dinning says.

“We look forward to completing the current drill program and following-up the multitude of exciting discoveries made so far.”

 

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

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TRADING HALTS

Titomic (ASX:TTT) – Capital Raise.

Poseidon Nickel (ASX:POS) – Capital Raise.

Talon Energy (ASX:TPD) – Equity Raise.

Payright (ASX:PYR) – Capital Raise.

Echo IQ (ASX:EIQ) – US Clinical Study Results incoming…

Wellfully (ASX:WFL) – Price and volume query response.

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