After another inflation fright in the US overnight, local stocks were expected to start in the red this morning.

And that’s what happened, although things refrained from getting really ugly following the slow start.

Still, the seller’s held sway into the closing bell as markets took a mini-dive to finish the session.

The end result was a 0.98% drop for the ASX 200, with a steeper 2.21% fall for the ASX Small Ordinaries.

For now, the US Fed is holding sway over global stocks, as investors assess the likelihood of even tighter monetary policy in 2022 than previously expected.

After last night’s selloff, things are still looking shaky on Wall Street with Nasdaq futures pointing almost 1% lower in afternoon Asian trade.

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

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

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For ASX small cap observers on Friday there was one clear winner from start to finish — Bougainville Copper (ASX:BOC).

The stock ripped higher on some big regulatory news out of Papua New Guinea, where reports emerged that local authorities may push the restart button on BOC’s massive copper-gold mine.

It’s been a cool 33 years since production ceased at the site, after local conflict in PNG escalated into a 10-year civil war (get the full background here). BOC still has to get its mining licence back, but today’s news sent the stock surging back to decade-highs.

Also rising strongly was clinical-stage medicinal cannabis company Incannex Healthcare (ASX:IHL), which jumped by 20% on no no news.

And SME lender N1 Holdings (ASX:N1H), climbed by another 12% on no news. The ~$15m market cap company, which also provides mortgage broker services, has now risen by around 300% since last June.

 

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

Biotech company, Immutep (ASX:IMM) has been granted a patent by the Australian Patent Office entitled “Combined Preparations for the Treatment of Cancer or Infection.”

The patent protects the company’s intellectual property over its LAG-3 related immunotherapy treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases, specifically, its “lead active immunotherapy candidate, eftilagimod alpha (IMP321), a LAG-3 fusion protein (LAG-31g), and an anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 antibody.

It’s share price increased to 40c in the afternoon from 39.5c at open, dipping to 38.5c before settling at 39.5c before close, an overall gain of 2.37%.

Malaysian nitrile glove manufacturer, VIP Gloves Limited (ASX:VIP) has signed an acquisition proposal or Heads of Agreement with the major shareholder of Ammorium Resources Sdn bhd, Julian Foo Kuan Lin.

Incorporated in Malaysia in 2015, Ammonium holds a 10-year tax-exempt status and is licensed and ready to get into the glove manufacturing game.

The proposed acquisition, subject to due diligence, authorises VIP to oversee the construction of integrated facility on a 53 acre piece of land in Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia to design, develop, and manufacture medical-grade nitrile examination gloves, with the capacity to pump out a total of 900 million pieces of gloves per month, or 10.8 billion per year.

VIP’s share price was unchanged throughout the day, and was sitting steady at 2.8c at close.

Carnaby Resources (ASX:CNB) provided an update at its Nil Desperandum discovery, within the Greater Duchess Copper Gold Project in Mt Isa, Queensland.

The explorer said it detected copper sulphide mineralisation deposits in two drill holes, one which intersected at a 70m down hole from 195m and the other at 63m down from 169m, both containing from 1 to 18% chalcopyrite based on visual estimates.

Carnaby’s share price dropped 9.41% today, from $1.98 at open, dipping to $1.64, and closed at $1.69.

 

TRADING HALTS

The following companies went into halts on Friday and are due out in the coming days.

K-Tig Ltd (ASX:KTG) — Capital raising
Peregrine Gold (ASX:PGD) — Capital raising and board changes
Rafaella Resources (ASX:RSR) — Capital raising

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