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Well, that was a turn up for the inflation-data-based books. As Gregor “Can I Eat Some Bloody Lunch Now?” Stronach detailed in his on point yet also tangentially wonderful ASX Small Caps Lunch Wrap, the latest Aussie CPI numbers have been crunched.
And the verdict? A bigger-than-expected drop in inflation over the June quarter. Pats on back all round at the ABS and the RBA and the beers are on both of them. Ahem, not that they’re flush with extra beer money off their early-doors info, a la Bud Fox, of course.
It must be slightly like having a time-travelling DeLorean-delivered future edition of the all-seeing Grays Sports Almanac but being strictly forbidden to do anything with it but pore over its otherwise boring stats.
That said, the official Aussie CPI inflation figure falling from 6.6 per cent to 5.9 per cent, below the RBA’s forecast of 6 per cent, was not boring information for many on the bourse today.
Over to you now, RBA. It remains to be seen whether it needs to dust off and strap on the hiking boots again at all. Some say not, as they lovingly eye up their shares portfolios today.
Insofar as percentage gains on the ASX are concerned, we’ll dig in a bit further below to learn who seemed to fare best from it all. But first…
• The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is one business group that’s all for another rate-hike pause. It spoke up with this nugget:
“Further cooling of inflation in the June quarter is the latest positive sign that the Reserve Bank’s interest rate rises are having their desired effect on price pressures,” noted ACCI chief exec Andrew McKellar, per an ABC report earlier in the day.
“With falls now coming through, today’s data is encouraging for many small business owners who are now seeing the costs of doing business starting to ease.”
• Adding to the positive tune today was KPMG. Its economist Dr Brendan Rynne reckoned:
“Despite the tight labour market, with unemployment at an all-time low of 3.5 per cent, the full effects of tighter monetary policy on the economy are yet to be fully experienced,” adding…
“Considering these factors, KPMG expects the RBA to pause again in the August 1 meeting, rather than taking further actions at this point which could slow the economy.”
• One more second-hand expert opinion for good measure? Yep. Per a report in The Australian, Indeed APAC economist Callam Pickering said:
“We expect that the RBA will be more than happy to leave rates unchanged in order to assess the impact that earlier rate hikes have had on domestic demand and inflation.”
Right then. Sunshine, rainbows, more unicorns than ever and up only. 110% NFA.
AUD/USD falls as soft CPI prompts renewed hopes of an RBA pausehttps://t.co/l4Qfj1NB8v pic.twitter.com/DudBSA9VS0
— CITY INDEX AUSTRALIA (@CityIndexAus) July 26, 2023
The ASX 200 formed a near-perfect classical “Christ that was a lot of stairs, time for a lie down now” pattern on the technical charts today, ending in the green to the tune of +0.85%.
Starting with vim and vigour two steps at a time, forgetting its glasses and abruptly heading back down to the kitchen, then being somewhat distracted by the dog barking at something outside, it finally headed back up again for a session of positive work before becoming a bit tired and bored later on.
It was always likely to start pretty well, according to our very own non-fungible Eddy Sunarto, who noted early doors that Wall Street had staged ANOTHER mini-rally overnight. How many mini rallies need to be pastiched together before it classifies as a bona fide one-big rally? We’ll ask him later.
Alphabet and General Electric were up, while Snap Inc wasn’t. You can read a bit more about that here.
Meanwhile, what’s doing over in Asia? Some decent goings on, with the Shanghai Comp up 2.13% at the time of writing, the Hang Seng even more positive with a +4.1% gain. Although the Nikkei was pretty flat: -0.06%. Maybe Japan has a few other things on its mind, disturbingly.
Donutting back to the local bourse and zooming in a tad. Sectors-wise, here’s the easy-to-absorb visual aid, courtesy of Market Index.
Whatever was said to the Materials sector at the lunch interval and tea break yesterday, it’s working. Another beaut day for it, with Financials, Discretionary and IT stocks running decent supporting plays.
Utilities, Real Estate and Health Care have dipped in form. That’s okay. Even Bradman had an off day or two. Although some of you are starting to look a bit more like David Warner (in England), to be honest. Harsh?
Some standout players in the slightly larger end of Bourse City before we head to the lower-cap movers and shake-outs down in ASX Funky Town.
• Nuix (ASX:NXL): +13% > on no particularly fresh news today regarding the investigative analytics and intelligence software firm.
• Kogan (ASX:KGN): +9% > on a decent profitability update for the growing ecommerce outfit.
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
| Code | Company | Price | % | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R3D | R3D Resources Ltd | 0.04 | 60% | 441,200 | $2,950,759 |
| XTC | Xantippe Res Ltd | 0.0015 | 50% | 3,634,514 | $11,480,100 |
| RGS | Regeneus Ltd | 0.011 | 38% | 1,781,611 | $2,451,495 |
| ADS | Adslot Ltd. | 0.004 | 33% | 5,265,941 | $9,799,851 |
| DDT | DataDot Technology | 0.004 | 33% | 1,351,192 | $3,632,858 |
| ROG | Red Sky Energy. | 0.004 | 33% | 372,130 | $15,906,682 |
| PAC | Pacific Grp Ltd | 10.31 | 32% | 656,123 | $402,275,125 |
| TTT | Titomic Limited | 0.0155 | 29% | 7,584,807 | $10,363,373 |
| OJC | The Original Juice | 0.105 | 27% | 496,131 | $20,301,036 |
| AJQ | Armour Energy Ltd | 0.0025 | 25% | 64 | $9,842,684 |
| RBL | Redbubble Limited | 0.59 | 22% | 1,328,912 | $134,694,308 |
| ICG | Inca Minerals Ltd | 0.04 | 21% | 342,150 | $16,005,329 |
| MOH | Moho Resources | 0.012 | 20% | 300,000 | $2,595,778 |
| ASM | Ausstratmaterials | 1.4 | 19% | 1,580,902 | $196,712,168 |
| G50 | Gold50Limited | 0.225 | 18% | 4,742,731 | $10,819,170 |
| AEI | Aeris Environmental | 0.027 | 17% | 55,185 | $5,649,825 |
| AUR | Auris Minerals Ltd | 0.014 | 17% | 1,047,428 | $5,719,511 |
| CXU | Cauldron Energy Ltd | 0.007 | 17% | 1,044,582 | $5,589,412 |
| DOU | Douugh Limited | 0.007 | 17% | 278,585 | $5,903,390 |
| OPN | Oppenneg | 0.007 | 17% | 640,000 | $6,700,078 |
| YPB | YPB Group Ltd | 0.0035 | 17% | 812,000 | $2,230,384 |
| VBS | Vectus Biosystems | 0.5 | 16% | 4,607 | $22,871,493 |
| C1X | Cosmosexploration | 0.43 | 16% | 422,912 | $16,455,750 |
| PEC | Perpetual Res Ltd | 0.022 | 16% | 9,074,885 | $10,364,195 |
| CUF | Cufe Ltd | 0.015 | 15% | 125,000 | $12,559,461 |
Standouts:
• Xantippe Resources (ASX:XTC): +67% > Big gainz, but no fresh news today for the WA (Southern Cross) focused precious metals explorer. The other day, though, it announced some capital raising to fund strategic growth.
• AD1 Holdings (ASX:AD1): +40% > The recruitment tech and utilities-software-billing firm announced strong quarterly financial/activities results today.
• Melodiol Global Health (ASX:ME1): 20% > The Aussie cannabis company’s wholly owned subsidiary Mernova Medicinal Inc. has made strong progress on the EU GMP licence process to fast-track cannabis exports to Australia and Europe. And for some reason, we’re craving pizza.
• BirdDog Technology (ASX:BDT) +17% > The global video tech company reports not-too-bad quarterly results, with customer cash receipts of A$7.5 million, +3.6% quarter-on-quarter (-7.5% versus pcp).
• Oneview Healthcare (ASX:ONE): +15% > The healthtech software solutions outfit has just delivered a positive cash flow report. Which is nice.
Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
| Code | Company | Price | % | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AJQ | Armour Energy Ltd | 0.002 | -33% | 1,411,212 | $14,764,026 |
| VPR | Volt Power Group | 0.001 | -33% | 299,998 | $16,074,312 |
| CLE | Cyclone Metals | 0.0015 | -25% | 4,187,327 | $20,529,010 |
| DDT | DataDot Technology | 0.003 | -25% | 89,259 | $4,843,811 |
| MCT | Metalicity Limited | 0.0015 | -25% | 50,246 | $7,472,172 |
| TNY | Tinybeans Group Ltd | 0.16 | -22% | 215 | $15,901,037 |
| PVE | Po Valley Energy Ltd | 0.05 | -21% | 1,441,993 | $73,014,582 |
| ADR | Adherium Ltd | 0.004 | -20% | 10,119,830 | $24,997,042 |
| GTG | Genetic Technologies | 0.002 | -20% | 1,961,659 | $28,854,145 |
| SGC | Sacgasco Ltd | 0.0065 | -19% | 34,005,636 | $6,188,662 |
| KOB | Kobaresourceslimited | 0.145 | -17% | 43,639 | $18,447,917 |
| IMI | Infinitymining | 0.125 | -17% | 163,133 | $11,471,748 |
| MOH | Moho Resources | 0.01 | -17% | 1,352,553 | $3,114,933 |
| NAE | New Age Exploration | 0.005 | -17% | 1,873,201 | $8,615,393 |
| DTZ | Dotz Nano Ltd | 0.205 | -16% | 690,935 | $114,224,541 |
| ADO | Anteotech Ltd | 0.033 | -15% | 7,667,949 | $79,947,603 |
| TOY | Toys R Us | 0.011 | -15% | 311,495 | $11,220,127 |
| EPM | Eclipse Metals | 0.017 | -15% | 2,573,565 | $40,561,196 |
| AMA | AMA Group Limited | 0.1275 | -15% | 4,621,828 | $160,960,533 |
| FAU | First Au Ltd | 0.003 | -14% | 7,401,666 | $5,081,976 |
| HOR | Horseshoe Metals Ltd | 0.012 | -14% | 455,467 | $9,008,701 |
| OPN | Oppenneg | 0.006 | -14% | 3,363,410 | $7,816,757 |
| TIG | Tigers Realm Coal | 0.006 | -14% | 6,162,685 | $91,466,917 |
| SPL | Starpharma Holdings | 0.31 | -14% | 1,118,808 | $147,777,508 |
| GBZ | GBM Rsources Ltd | 0.02 | -13% | 1,145,403 | $14,167,107 |
• Nickel copper
Good news for small (but perfectly formed) Aussie exploration company Lycaon Resources (ASX:LYN), which noted today that it’s secured firm commitments to raise a total of $1.5 million through the issue of 6 million shares at an issue price of $0.25 per share.
In other words, a you-beaut placement. Which, by the way, has been well supported by new and existing shareholders. The company says it will enable it to forge ahead with its planned, fully owned and operated exploration programs in the Kimberley and West Arunta up in remote but magnificent WA.
More specifically, Lycaon notes that drilling is to commence at the Bow River (just where you wanna be) nickel copper project in mid to late August. Get yourself a set of brand new tyres and get up there for a visit, we reckon. Or maybe just fly there. It’s easier.
• Gold
East Malaysian-focused, Toronto-HQed goldie Besra Gold (ASX:BEZ) has some decent news worth noting today, too, despite losing a bit of share-price ground.
And that’s the fact it’s received some money in its drawdown bank account – US$5 million, which is handy.
It’s an initial payment from Quantum Metal Recovery Inc. The further skinny on that, is that Quantum, “pursuant to a US$300,000,000 drawdown facility approved by shareholders at yesterday’s Special General Meeting”, will be depositing “working capital” of up to US$10,000,000 per month into the drawdown account.
Sounds like a good deal. The first $10m should be received by the end of September this year, apparently. Besra will be deploying the funds of the facility for several uses, including “exploration, feasibility studies, mine development purposes and working capital”.
• Tech
Nano-technology small cap Dotz Nano (ASX:DTZ) has today announced it’s planning to raise $4 million to fund the acquisition of carbon capture technology , which it announced to market back in May.
In order to secure this, the firm has entered into “definitive securities purchase agreements” with several existing and new institutional and sophisticated investors, including South Israel Bridging Fund.
They’re talking private placements of 19,807,500 ordinary shares at an issue price of A$0.20 per share.
• Fundie news
Stockhead has also learnt today that the “boutique” Aussie equities investment manager NovaPort Capital has appointed Tim Binsted as its Portfolio Manager responsible for investment research and capital allocation for the NovaPort Smaller Companies Fund and NovaPort Microcap Fund.
From what we gleaned from a press release on Binstead’s new role, the appointment reflects a growing confidence in investment opportunities within the quality small-cap sector.
It’s largely all go today and not much going on in the way of halting. But…
Kalamazoo Resources (ASX:KZR) – Capital raising.
Austal (ASX:ASB) – Amid the aftermath of a disappointing financial result regarding specification and cost-inflation pressures related to its US operations, the Aussie shipbuilder and global defence contractor has requested an end to its trading halt.
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Lycaon Resources and Besra Gold are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
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