Closing Bell: Local markets fell on Friday with ASX 200 down 64 pts

ASX 200 ends 0.8pc down
All sectors did badly. Comms Services the least worst
Small caps led by CSX

The Australian sharemarket fell on Friday, with all sectors lower.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 64 points, or 0.81%, to 7979.1.

The worst performer on the benchmark was Lifestyle Communities (ASX:LIC) after it withdrew forward guidance for CY25.

Australian shares were well back below 8000 points by breakfast, and were dragged lower into lunch by blue chip banks and miners and tech stocks.

Overnight in the States, former US president Donald Trump delighted the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee with promises of massive tariffs on anything related to China sending the Nasdaq into a tail-spin.

US stocks were down across the board. The Dow Jones was robbed of a seventh-day winning advent, shorn of 500 points.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 0.78% and 0.70%, respectively.

At home the un-magnificent materials sector was dragged further into infamy with the goldies and iron ore majors abysmal.

Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN), 3.6% shorter, and Newmont Corporation (ASX:NEM) were among the biggest large-cap decliners.

In terms of market cap look no further than another shocker for fans of big iron ore producers.

BHP (ASX:BHP), Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) and Fortescue (ASX:FMG) were down by almost 2% a piece at lunch.

Next were the big banks which spent Friday giving up Monday to Thursday, which had been part-way decent.

Still copping a beating was IT, not great considering the 3.4% thwacking on Thursday.

But, late in the day we see green, thanks to some slight gains by Telstra (ASX:TLS) and Mercury NZ (ASX:MCY).

Other major name winners late on Friday included Domino’s Pizza Enterprises (ASX:DMP), which fell sharply on store closures and weaker forecasts on Thursday only to rebound on the back of a broker upgrade from Goldman Sachs to Buy from Neutral.

Here’s the ASX Sectors at the close on Friday

The Australian dollar also fell further off recent 6-month highs to around $0.67.

The AUD is at its worst place in over two weeks after the greenback rebounded on strong US economic data.

The Aussie D followed overnight falls in key commodities, including copper.

Not the ASX

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 28 points, or less than 0.1%. S&P 500 futures ticked up 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.2%.

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best-performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
CSX	Cleanspace Holdings	0.590	93%	282,465	$23,594,721
AUK	Aumake Limited	0.005	67%	17,687,381	$5,743,220
SIS	Simble Solutions	0.005	67%	1,661,399	$2,260,352
MMM	Marley Spoon Se	0.030	67%	230,195	$2,119,039
APC	Aust Potash Ltd	0.002	50%	250,000	$4,020,189
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.003	50%	114,593	$8,971,705
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.003	50%	1,088,652	$12,394,892
NES	Nelson Resources.	0.003	50%	453,913	$1,227,189
MSG	Mcs Services Limited	0.004	33%	649,680	$594,299
QXR	Qx Resources Limited	0.008	33%	2,175,772	$6,660,467
FG1	Flynngold	0.034	31%	42,028,282	$6,618,162
ALM	Alma Metals Ltd	0.009	29%	3,766,258	$10,100,152
AVE	Avecho Biotech Ltd	0.003	0%	108,298	$7,923,243
OVT	Ovanti Limited	0.005	25%	34,292,456	$4,960,422
SGC	Sacgasco Ltd	0.005	25%	2,058,921	$3,586,561
OLH	Oldfields Holdings	0.069	23%	15,000	$11,186,333
HXG	Hexagon Energy	0.016	23%	280,166	$6,667,907
BCT	Bluechiip Limited	0.006	20%	1,090,008	$5,910,198
MOH	Moho Resources	0.006	20%	108,843	$2,695,891
MQR	Marquee Resource Ltd	0.012	20%	1,076,463	$4,133,844
CC9	Chariot Corporation	0.155	19%	116,289	$11,651,622
E25	Element 25 Ltd	0.250	19%	36,460	$46,181,604
KLI	Killiresources	0.160	19%	6,150,290	$16,230,205
REZ	Resourc & En Grp Ltd	0.020	14%	4,828,151	$11,316,185
FXG	Felix Gold Limited	0.047	18%	266,000	$10,017,159

Cleanspace (ASX:CSX) is killing it after a cracking FY24 sales update and is now in trouble with the ASX highway patrol.

Here’s what you’ve missed on Friday:

The stock is up almost 95%.

There was a good AGM on Friday for food service Marley Spoon (ASX:MMM). I see the stock climbing. It needs to.

The bigger AGM is in Berlin on the 19th.

Also winning into the weekend is Flynn Gold (ASX:FG1).

The driller was an early leader on Friday morning after delivering news of a new high-grade gold discovery in Northeastern Tasmania, at the company’s Golden Ridge project. Exploration has revealed a gold vein zone in trenching 250m north of the Trafalgar mine, with 17 out of 36 grab rock chip samples assayed at over 10g/t Au, including 99.4g/t Au, 76.6g/t Au and 67.1g/t Au.

Back for more gains was Metalicity (ASX:MCT), up on news that it’s appointed Argonaut PCF to seek indicative offers for its Admiral Bay Zinc Project, located in the Canning Basin, Kimberley Region of Western Australia, which the company says “hosts one of the largest zinc resources in the world, based on existing JORC 2012 compliant mineral resource (170mt @ 7.5% Zn eq)”.

Mayfield Group Holdings (ASX:MYG) climbed quickly at the opening bell on news of some boardroom largesse for shareholders. The company has declared a fully franked final dividend of $0.02 per share for the fiscal year ending on 30 June 2024, which is double the divvy the company paid out this time last year.

And Riversgold (ASX:RGL) dropped an investor presentation this morning that has done something fitting the company name, the price moving more than 7.6%, which isn’t terrible considering the rest of the market’s mood today.

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the least performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
NTM	Nt Minerals Limited	0.007	-42%	4,115,026	$12,208,835
88E	88 Energy Ltd	0.002	-33%	2,378,294	$86,678,016
ACP	Audalia Res Ltd	0.014	-26%	279,673	$13,150,588
PKO	Peako Limited	0.004	-26%	750,688	$2,846,152
AAU	Antilles Gold Ltd	0.003	-25%	5,616,830	$5,845,711
ECT	Env Clean Tech Ltd.	0.003	-25%	75,440	$12,687,242
ATH	Alterity Therap Ltd	0.005	-25%	23,222,766	$31,470,692
LRL	Labyrinth Resources	0.011	-21%	14,338,268	$16,625,612
MRQ	Mrg Metals Limited	0.004	-20%	3,540,000	$13,557,593
ROG	Red Sky Energy.	0.004	-20%	1,041,008	$27,111,136
SIH	Sihayo Gold Limited	0.002	-20%	48,000	$30,510,640
C29	C29Metalslimited	0.093	-19%	356,905	$16,063,337
FME	Future Metals NL	0.022	-19%	446,293	$15,526,093
FFF	Forbidden Foods	0.009	-18%	160,695	$2,499,458
AIV	Activex Limited	0.005	-17%	250,235	$1,293,015
BNL	Blue Star Helium Ltd	0.005	-17%	923,525	$11,669,312
CCZ	Castillo Copper Ltd	0.005	-17%	1,734,297	$7,797,032
EVR	Ev Resources Ltd	0.005	-17%	385,333	$8,227,629
MCL	Mighty Craft Ltd	0.005	-17%	1,430,585	$2,213,456
ME1	Melodiol Glb Health	0.003	-17%	5,794,344	$918,791
TYX	Tyranna Res Ltd	0.005	-17%	651,636	$19,727,552
AGH	Althea Group	0.021	-16%	4,377,888	$10,133,311
OZM	Ozaurum Resources	0.054	-16%	347,199	$10,160,000
QGL	Quantum Graphite	0.630	-15%	181,267	$252,772,285

ICYMI – PM Edition

Equinox Resources (ASX:EQN) has strengthened its exploration team with the appointment of veteran geologist Sergio Luiz Martins Pereira as its chief geoscientist and Leonardo Fraga as its senior geologist. Pereira will lead the company’s strategic exploration initiatives.

GreenTech Metals (ASX:GRE) has completed Stage 1 of its planned 2200m reverse circulation drill program that was designed to uncover new resources at its Whundo copper-zinc project in WA’s West Pilbara region.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Equinox Resources and GreenTech Metals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.