The ASX resumed trading after the Christmas break with a healthy gain of over 1%, taking it to levels not seen since early September.

The ASX 200 closed at 7,510 points, up 1.21% from last Friday, a level last seen on September 8.

All sectors gained with the best being consumer staples which rose by almost 2%.

 

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

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

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Carnaby Resources (ASX:CNB) and its partner Discovex (ASX:DCX) climbed off the back of a discovery at the Greater Duchess Gold Project in western Queensland.

Michael Hill (ASX:MHJ) was the first retailer to give a post-Christmas trading update, telling shareholders it would deliver a first half year result well above the prior corresponding period’s EBIT figure which was $44.6 million.

While neither company had individual news, COVID test providers Lumos Diagnostics (ASX:LDX) and Atomo Diagnostics (ASX:AT1) both rocketed amidst heavy demand for COVID tests in recent days.

 

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

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

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Pure Minerals (ASX:PUA) dropped after an update on the proposed spin-out of its subsidiary Vertex Minerals, which is expected in mid January.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY’VE MISSED

Very few ASX companies have been affected by COVID lockdowns in China;  Magnotec (ASX:MGL), which has a magnesium anode manufacturing plant in Xi’an, is one of them. The company says production has been halted with all commercial activities ordered to cease.

The WA government approved the Stage 2 Conservation Management plan for initial low-impact drilling at the Hartog and Baudin targets at Chalice Mining’s (ASX:CHN) Julimar project. The approval requires no mechanised clearing of vegetation and a maximum operational footprint of 4.4 hectares.

Total Brain (ASX:TTB) entered into a data licensing deal with Alto Neuroscience for its iSpot-D research data. Total Brain will receive a one-off license fee of US$500,000, with the first US$100,000 due by January 15 and the balance within 15 days of the data transfer data which will be sometime in the March quarter.

Fintech Butn (ASX:BTN) obtained another $8.5 million in debt financing from existing bond holders. The company says the funds will be used to purchase eligible receivables and based on its receivables book, it will provide for over $50 million of additional annual origination capacity.

Payments solutions company Tyro (ASX:TYR) recorded just over $3 billion in transaction value in the first 24 days of December. This is 36% up from the prior corresponding period and takes its year to date volume to just over $15.3 billion.

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