Closing Bell: Screwball takeovers and lack of war lifts ASX, small caps stunned

So basically, this is how I read it. Because of two really screwball takeover ideas involving the A2 Milk Co and AGL Energy — two of the more screwball companies floating about on the benchmark index — the S&P/ASX200 is higher on Monday, gaining around 20 points or 0.3%.

Over the last five days, the index is virtually unchanged, but has lost 2.7% for the year to date.

It’s just the kind of Monday on the bourse The Bangles used to get upset about, when the top two performing stocks are the A2 Milk Co (up 11.3%) and AGL Ltd (10.8%).

For a more mature, more nuanced and appropriate assessment of what Monday trading is really like we turn to what is expressed in the the S&P/ASX Emerging Companies Index (XEC) where we’ve been smashed and losses have accumulated throughout the trading day, down 1.9%.

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
ALT	Analytica Limited	0.002	33.3%	252,527
AKN	Auking Mining Ltd	0.245	32.4%	36,720,992
SKN	Skin Elements Ltd	0.055	25.0%	849,300
PLG	Pearlgullironlimited	0.08	21.2%	496,119
IGN	Ignite Ltd	0.175	20.7%	412,772
LEX	Lefroy Exploration	0.355	20.3%	596,792
EGN	Engenco Limited	0.51	20.0%	938,094
GTG	Genetic Technologies	0.006	20.0%	22,254,911
MTB	Mount Burgess Mining	0.006	20.0%	248,730
LAU	Lindsay Australia	0.46	17.9%	1,859,109
WSR	Westar Resources	0.135	17.4%	57,234
GNM	Great Northern	0.007	16.7%	520,405
SW1	Swift Networks Group	0.014	16.7%	1,266,418
RGL	Riversgold	0.026	15.6%	1,899,962
IS3	I Synergy Group Ltd	0.15	15.4%	46,549
AUQ	Alara Resources Ltd	0.076	15.2%	890,282
CBY	Canterbury Resources	0.085	14.9%	261,945
KNO	Knosys Limited	0.12	14.3%	47,452
RCR	Rincon	0.12	14.3%	84,395
WWI	West Wits Mining Ltd	0.051	13.3%	32,708,877
HIL	Hills Ltd	0.13	13.0%	742,301
WEL	Winchester Energy	0.018	12.5%	4,469,809
SNG	Siren Gold	0.28	12.0%	6,627
SCT	Scout Security Ltd	0.048	11.6%	669,529
OBM	Ora Banda Mining Ltd	0.077	11.6%	7,477,296

Auking Mining (ASX:AKN) stood up and was counted on Monday, due to a drilling hit which included a 16.6m chunk grading 10.2% copper and 316g/t silver at the ‘Onedin’ deposit from its Koongie Park project in Western Australia.

Also climbing on no discernable news, Rincon Resources (ASX:RCR) – a $5m market cap digger with a project called ‘South Telfer’ in the classy Paterson Province, about 12km from the large Telfer gold mine which produced 393,164 ounces of gold and 16,278 tonnes of copper in FY21.

Results from a December drilling program released last week were initially disappointing – low-level copper-gold “despite intersecting favourable zones of alteration,” but Reuben says RCR reckons the target is still there; they just missed it somehow.

Up about 25% is Lefroy Exploration (ASX:LEX). The Kalgoorlie explorer has hit thick, high grade gold underneath a salt lake at the emerging ‘Burns’ discovery.

Sub-$10m nanocap Swift Networks (ASX:SW1) pulled a namesake after flagging a strong start to the second-half with seven new projects wins. It’s up about 13%.

Not the smallest cap in town, but let’s take a moment to root for Aussie Broadband band its share price, which hit a calendar year PB after the upstart telco returned to profit.

The 7% rise, comes on the back of the major telco’s being generally awful at internet stuff, and because net profit after tax attributable to members (…sigh, NPATAM) more than doubled, delivering a $1.4m win, compared to a loss of $10.5m the same time last year.

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

(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
WOO	Wooboard Tech Ltd	0.001	-50.0%	2,753,968
GTE	Great Western Exp.	0.096	-26.2%	975,508
TYR	Tyro Payments	1.625	-25.5%	32,080,427
ANL	Amani Gold Ltd	0.0015	-25.0%	102,448,022
ARC	ARC Funds Limited	0.6	-17.8%	11,332
NET	Netlinkz Limited	0.02	-16.7%	7,803,386
EXL	Elixinol Wellness	0.047	-14.5%	2,403,788
IMB	Intelligent Monitor	0.3	-14.3%	79,032
CT1	Constellation Tech	0.006	-14.3%	2,913,014
PG1	Pearl Global Ltd	0.024	-14.3%	20,061
CPO	Culpeominerals	0.125	-13.8%	329,747
ALA	Arovella Therapeutic	0.045	-13.5%	18,590,178
TMK	Tamaska Oil Gas Ltd	0.013	-13.3%	9,261,202
CDXDA	Cardiex Limited	0.4	-13.0%	55,425
GCR	Golden Cross	0.135	-12.9%	892,441
AO1	Assetowl Limited	0.0035	-12.5%	16,837,677
AQX	Alice Queen Ltd	0.007	-12.5%	810,000
AXP	AXP Energy Ltd	0.007	-12.5%	10,499,838
ICN	Icon Energy Limited	0.014	-12.5%	342,895
OEL	Otto Energy Limited	0.014	-12.5%	9,135,267
ALM	Alma Metals Ltd	0.035	-12.5%	510,000
MRI	Myrewardsinternation	0.071	-12.3%	3,489,074
CTT	Cettire	2.32	-11.8%	582,163
ATX	Amplia Therapeutics	0.15	-11.8%	44,320

Shares in Tyro are getting scourged, down by almost a full third after profits just imploded some 425%. It swings the payments provider to a loss of well over $18 million for the six months to December 31.

It’s an utterly wretched result. EBITDA is down more than two thirds – 67.2% – and the March 2020 Covid-inspired record low is not looking that far away.

ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

Technology and wearables developer SpaceTalk (ASX:SPA) has recorded a 50% increase in revenue on PCP of $12.3 million for the 1H FY22.

Revenue growth was aided by geographic diversification with Spacetalk wearables now sold in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Canada and the US.

Annualised recurring revenue (ARR) from the Spacetalk app’s monthly subscriptions was $3.5 million, up 52% compared to pcp, which the company says validates its strategy of building an integrated eco-system.

Total wearablers revenue was up 58% to $11.4 million. Spacetalk products are wearable devices in the form of smartphone-lite GPS watches which have functions like heart rate monitoring and in-built features for the safety of kids and seniors.

Local goldie, Iris Metals (ASX:IR1) is enjoying Monday with its first drill program at the Kookynie project nudging near-surface gold across every single prospect drilled.

Not super surprising, since Kookynie is renowned for its historical high-grade gold production and bonanza gold grades – plus its in the highly prospective Tier-1 mining jurisdiction of Leonora in WA.

Results from the Lily prospect include:

8m at 3.9 g/t from 17m, including 1m at 7.6 g/ and;
5m at 6.1 g/t from 34m, including 1m at 22.7 g/t

Oar Resources (ASX:OAR) is all set to restart drilling at its Douglas Canyon gold project in Nevada just as gold prices touch US$1900/oz.

The Aussie-listed OAR is now just days away from restarting diamond drilling in the USA’s prolific Walker Lane gold and silver district, home to numerous multi-million ounce high-grade gold deposits including Kinross’ Round Mountain gold mine.

Killi’s (ASX:KLI) district-wide evaluation has identified new gold prospects over 100km in strike within the Tanami gold province, host to more than 18Moz of gold.

These gold targets, which have been generated using similar analogues to that of Newmont Corporation’s (NYSE:NEM) Callie Gold Mine, and Northern Star’s (ASX:NST) Kookaburra and Coyote gold mines, are on top of the 95km of rare earths strike recently identified at Killi’s Tanami Gold Project.

Three corridors have been established over the project to prioritise KLI’s exploration strategy and represent the major gold systems they are associated with, Callie Corridor, Kookaburra Trend, and the Coyote Corridor.

The company says it is making plans for drilling in the 2022 field season with field work to begin as soon as possible.