Closing Bell: Late buyers save the ASX from its biggest daily fall of the year

After treading water since the start of September, the ASX 200 took a dive in Thursday trade to finish 1.90% lower.

Stocks lost ground at the opening bell and kept falling throughout the day, with steady falls across the board.

Local stocks tracked what was a bearish session across Asian markets, as the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong also fell more than 2%.

Things got especially wobbly about an hour out from the close of trade, when the ASX 200 looked on track to eclipse its biggest fall of the year — a 2.35% drop on February 26 — before some buyers stepped in.

Emerging jitters about China’s property market gathered momentum, as major Chinese property developer Evergrande slumped by another 11% after going in and out of trading halts at the beginning of the week.

TODAY’S BIGGEST WINNERS

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Code	Company	Price	%	Volume
ADR	Adherium Ltd	0.024	60.0%	145,508,907
BAS	Bass Oil Ltd	0.0015	50.0%	1,215,000
CLZ	Classic Min Ltd	0.0015	50.0%	33,167,302
HNR	Hannans Ltd	0.01	42.9%	58,826,022
WBT	Weebit Nano Ltd	3.66	29.8%	9,870,986
CZR	CZR Resources Ltd	0.009	28.6%	5,240,442
KNI	Kunikolimited	2.04	23.6%	6,182,091
CHL	Camplifyholdings	3.02	23.3%	1,222,182
IBG	Ironbark Zinc Ltd	0.0295	22.9%	8,928,349
VBS	Vectus Biosystems	1.8	20.0%	63,797
OVT	Ovato Limited	0.003	20.0%	200,000
ASN	Anson Resources Ltd	0.115	17.3%	24,161,649
OPL	Opyl Limited	0.14	16.7%	742,130
VIA	Viagold Rare Earth	0.14	16.7%	19,000
TSC	Twenty Seven Co. Ltd	0.0035	16.7%	5,381,330
XST	Xstate Resources	0.0035	16.7%	11,227,682
GO2	Thego2People	0.036	16.1%	218,448
PAL	Palla Pharma Ltd	0.29	16.0%	220,730

Despite the broader market selloff, there were still a number of outsized small cap gains for stocks that posted new market-moving announcements.

Leading the pack was medtech company Adherium (ASX:ADR), which jumped 30% at the opening bell and finished around 60% higher.

The gains followed news that ADR received approval from US health regulators to market its the Hailie Sensors — devices that attach to a patient’s asthma or medication inhaler to allow caregivers to provide advanced patient monitoring.

Investors also got bullish on semiconductor technology company Weebit Nano (ASX:WBT), after signing a production deal with US-based semiconductor foundry SkyWater Technology.

The deal will see SkyWater incorporate WBT’s ReRAM technology into its production processes, with future revenue opportunities based on how may SkyWater customers take up the products.

TODAY’S BIGGEST LOSERS

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Code	Company	Price	%	Volume
AFW	Applyflow Limited	0.006	-25.0%	16,641,236
OEX	Oilex Ltd	0.003	-25.0%	162,403
XTC	Xantippe Res Ltd	0.0015	-25.0%	2,815,000
IQ3	Iq3Corp Limited	0.115	-23.3%	169,000
WFL	Wellfully Limited	0.11	-21.4%	1,443,807
VIC	Victory Mines Ltd	0.002	-20.0%	185,715,542
GNM	Great Northern	0.01	-16.7%	23,178,529
YPB	YPB Group Ltd	0.0025	-16.7%	10,684,437
LCT	Living Cell Tech.	0.011	-15.4%	5,693
CML	Chase Mining Limited	0.017	-15.0%	2,460,532
PAM	Pan Asia Metals	0.52	-14.8%	5,375,972
ESH	Esports Mogul Ltd	0.006	-14.3%	1,376,193
RXM	Rex Minerals Limited	0.33	-14.3%	1,593,934
SI6	SI6 Metals Limited	0.012	-14.3%	4,719,860
SRJ	SRJ Technologies	0.215	-14.0%	10,000
BNR	Bulletin Res Ltd	0.068	-13.9%	926,278
S2R	S2 Resources	0.099	-13.9%	3,528,322
OLL	Openlearning	0.125	-13.8%	1,761,177
GTE	Great Western Exp.	0.195	-13.3%	179,833
MSI	Multistack Internat.	0.052	-13.3%	78,560
QXR	Qx Resources Limited	0.013	-13.3%	2,884,041
MEI	Meteoric Resources	0.033	-13.2%	2,212,306
LIN	Lindian Resources	0.02	-13.0%	9,193,198
BCK	Brockman Mining Ltd	0.048	-12.7%	884,143
CAV	Carnavale Resources	0.007	-12.5%	1,057,142

Among stocks with news, junior explorer Great Northern Minerals (ASX:GNM) led the laggards, after updating the market on assay results from the recent reverse circulation drilling program at its Camel Creek gold project in North Queensland.

ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

Factor Therapeutics (ASX:FTT) held an EGM this afternoon to vote on entering a new life as a calcium limestone company called Dominion Resources. The company says it hopes for a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate by the end of this year and hopes to relist by mid-October.

Senex Energy (ASX:SXY) and New Century Resources (ASX:NCZ) signed a new gas sales agreement. The deal provides for 7 petajoules of natural gas over 3 years to power the Century zinc mine in north west Queensland and is the tenth major natural gas supply agreement announced by Senex since 2019.

Argonaut Resources (ASX:ARE) announced it has acquired a substantial package of uranium assets in South Australia and the NT. It is planning to spin them out in an IPO which could see Argonaut shareholders receive an in-specie distribution of shares.

Indoor Skydive (ASX:IDZ), is opening its fourth Virtual Reality game venue at Sydney’s Macquarie Centre. It will open in late November and the company expects currently locked down Sydneysiders to come in droves come the summer school holidays.

TerraCom (ASX:TER) is expecting revenue of $178 per tonne from its coal project in Queensland. The company says coal prices are at levels not seen since mid-2008 and are expected to remain solid throughout FY22.