Closing Bell: Market fades to a grubby finale leaving little to light up the long weekend

Wall Street leads local markets astray once more
Aussie benchmark down as emergers fail to emerge
Small cap trend-breakers leave investors amazed and confused

The ASX200 has thrown up all of its hands in disgust, after an overnight sell off on Wall Street proved to be too much of a harbinger to ignore. However, a couple of Small Cap curiosities have bucked the trend, so at least someone’s heading home happy today.

There was nary a verdant index in the house following a frustratingly dismal day, as the overall markets took their lead from the eastern states’ weather and went racing well-below zero.

The ASX200 dropped more than 1.0% for the day to end the week considerably lower than it began, with – as the morning session foreshadowed – Energy, Real Estate, Info Tech and Basic Materials all causing heartburn.

Lowlights among the top end of towners were Alumina (ASX:AWC) and Lynas (ASX:LYC), followed closely by Block Inc (ASX:SQ2), with a late break for the basement from Heartland Group Holdings (ASX:HGH), which sank close to 12% before the markets showed mercy by closing for the day.

The very ordinary week was punctuated by some moments of top-shelf oddity – most curious of all sprang from the ranks of the iron-folk. We’ll let Reuben tell the whole story, but – spoiler alert – Pearl Gull Iron (ASX:PLG) has banked a week that provided a whole lotta movement on not a whole lotta news.

But in arguably the very best news from the past few days, it’s a long weekend for the ASX. Stay warm and safe and all that funky stuff (unless you don’t want to… we’re not going to judge. Much.)

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

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

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

Code	Company	Price	%	Volume
LKO	Lakes Blue Energy	0.0015	50%	217,479,367
PLG	Pearl Gull Iron limited	0.071	42%	15,496,886
PRM	Prominence Energy	0.0025	25%	24,603,408
SIH	Sihayo Gold Limited	0.0025	25%	240,000
WBE	Whitebark Energy	0.0025	25%	21,557,705
HE8	Helios Energy Ltd	0.096	25%	3,330,409
RIE	Riedel Resources Ltd	0.011	22%	1,641,086
FRS	Forrestania Resources	0.17	21%	234,880
BAT	Battery Minerals Ltd	0.006	20%	5,312,710
SUH	Southern Hem Min	0.02	18%	1,093,072
ARO	Astro Resources NL	0.0035	17%	1,373,806
CZL	Cons Zinc Ltd	0.022	16%	1,051,774
W2V	Way2Vatltd	0.052	16%	493,164
MRZ	Mont Royal Resources	0.335	16%	59,883
VAL	Valor Resources Ltd	0.008	14%	7,860,654
GTE	Great Western Exp.	0.09	14%	481,657
RFA	Rare Foods Australia	0.058	14%	420,702
AQC	Auspaccoal Ltd	0.17	13%	195,320
MKR	Manuka Resources.	0.22	13%	265,319
CPO	Culpeo Minerals	0.32	12%	4,915,949
JXT	Jaxsta Ltd	0.029	12%	463,679
HPP	Health Plant Protein	0.09	11%	50,000
LDX	Lumos Diagnostics	0.15	11%	2,951,502
PWN	Parkway Corp Ltd	0.01	11%	2,685,578
SBR	Sabre Resources	0.005	11%	630,800

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

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

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

Code	Company	Last	%	Volume
T3D	333D Limited	0.001	-50%	395714
ALT	Analytica Limited	0.001	-33%	479151
TSL	Titanium Sands Ltd	0.012	-20%	969300
GGX	Gas2Grid Limited	0.002	-20%	30
GLV	Global Oil & Gas	0.004	-20%	31402252
PVS	Pivotal Systems	0.21	-19%	83812
ILA	Island Pharma	0.15	-19%	11000
ADS	Adslot Ltd.	0.013	-19%	1507342
GLA	Gladiator Resources	0.022	-19%	1388018
PNR	Pantoro Limited	0.245	-18%	6022882
TCG	Turaco Gold Limited	0.066	-18%	1145080
CI1	Credit Intelligence	0.095	-17%	178347
AXP	AXP Energy Ltd	0.005	-17%	15590306
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.005	-17%	4066854
FFG	Fatfish Group	0.022	-15%	886873
VIP	VIP Gloves	0.011	-15%	1185749
A8G	Australasian Metals	0.255	-15%	83314
AKO	Akora Resources	0.2	-15%	72647
ATV	Activeportgroupltd	0.09	-14%	400271
FIN	FIN Resources Ltd	0.018	-14%	1256308
MEG	Megado	0.09	-14%	397303
AOA	Ausmon Resorces	0.006	-14%	526610
CAD	Caeneus Minerals	0.006	-14%	1184143
RMX	Red Mount Min Ltd	0.006	-14%	1295577
KCC	Kincora Copper	0.081	-14%	10286

ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY’VE MISSED

Downer EDI Limited (ASX:DOW) revealed that its been awarded an Electrical Field Services Agreement with Powerco worth approximately $360 million over a maximum term of five years (three years initial terms with an option to extend another two). The deal will see Downer provide construction, maintenance and fault repair services to Powerco’s electricity distribution network on New Zealand’s North Island.

Meanwhile, Flinders Mines Limited (ASX:FMS) has informed the market about progress of exploration activities at its Canegrass Project in Western Australia. Highlights from reverse circulation percussion (RCP) drilling intersects vein-hosted gold mineralisation on structural trends associated to the Honeypot and Boulder prospects include:

Honeypot: