Closing Bell: Xero takes charge with a 10pc jump; Goldies dive on profit taking

Xero and Nvidia buoyed Tech, while BHP dragged Mining
Gold stocks were the worst performing miners today
New tensions over China’s drills near Taiwan

The benchmark ASX 200 index was down about -0.50% on Thursday.

Xero’s (ASX:XRO) 10% jump gave the Tech sector a boost today, while BHP’s (ASX:BHP) -2.65% drop dragged down the Mining sector.

Xero’s revenue hit NZ$1.7 billion for the year up to March, thanks to more subscribers and higher revenue per subscriber. Adjusted EBITDA jumped 75% to $NZ526.5 million, with CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy saying that “Xero is positioned well as we move into FY25”.

The Tech sector was also boosted by Nasdaq-listed chipmaker AI chipmaker Nvidia, which just announced a whopping seven-fold increase in profit, rocketing its stock to an all-time high overnight.

BHP dropped over -2% as it gets an extra week to come up with another takeover offer for Anglo American after Anglo turned down a third and supposedly final proposal worth $74 billion. Anglo said it will still entertain talks with BHP, even though it’s already turned down three offers this month.

Still in the large caps space, agricultural tech business Nufarm (ASX:NUF) tumbled -5% after guiding the market to a full year FY24 EBITDA of between $350 million and $390 million, the midpoint of which implies a decline of 16% from the pcp.

Gold stocks were the worst performing miners today as spot bullion suffered its biggest one-day drop since April.

The bullion rally finally cooled off as investors took profits and traders reined in their bets for Fed Reserve rate cuts this year following a hawkish-sounding FOMC minutes report last night.

“You’re seeing some week-long liquidation, some profit taking by the shorter term futures traders; all of which is not unusual in a market that hit a record high,” said Jim Wyckoff at Kitco Metals.

Oil stocks were also under pressure today after crude prices declined 2% overnight.

Let the chips war begin

Elsewhere, Asian shares were mixed this afternoon, but Nvidia’s unstoppable run has stirred excitement in Asia.

South Korea has just unveiled a US$19 billion incentives package to give its chip sector a boost, a move that’ll benefit giants like Samsung.

This comes as the global chip industry braces for a major showdown.

The EU has recently come up with a US$46.3 billion plan to boost the region’s chips manufacturing capacity, while the US has so far been doling out US$33bn in grants for advanced chipmaking facilities in the country.

Meanwhile there’s tension in the region as China kicked off a military drill around Taiwan today, just three days after William Lai, who China loathes, took office as the island’s new president.

China says the drill “serves as a strong punishment for the separatist acts of Taiwan independence”.

And finally, markets in Wall Street are heading towards a Monday public holiday weekend, but tonight, the closely watched US weekly unemployment claims report is due out.

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Today’s best performing small cap stocks:

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

Code	Name	Price	YTD Return	6 Mth Return	1 Mth Return
M4M	Macro Metals	$0.029	867%	480%	71%
AGC	Australian Gold and Copper	$0.560	689%	789%	618%
RCR	Rincon Resources	$0.110	293%	255%	144%
FND	Findi	$3.720	261%	226%	46%
VMS	Venture Minerals	$0.024	243%	109%	14%
CHW	Chilwa Minerals	$0.530	203%	253%	34%
SRZ	Stellar Resources	$0.021	200%	133%	11%
MMC	Mitre Mining	$0.795	194%	246%	53%
WIA	WIA Gold	$0.120	193%	264%	26%
NYR	Nyrada	$0.063	186%	200%	-36%
SHG	Singular Health	$0.105	176%	176%	5%
RNX	Renegade Exploration	$0.019	171%	111%	27%
SKS	SKS Tech	$0.775	158%	260%	16%
DRO	DroneShield	$0.895	142%	163%	-4%
GHY	Gold Hydrogen	$1.965	137%	105%	54%
GTE	Great Western	$0.060	131%	58%	5%
ARD	Argent Minerals	$0.020	122%	100%	5%
CBY	Canterbury Resources	$0.055	120%	83%	90%
SUM	Summit Minerals	$0.215	117%	87%	87%
CND	Condor Energy	$0.039	117%	225%	-20%

Strategic Energy Resources (ASX:SER) announced that it has raised $2m via placement to explore the Achilles 1 polymetallic prospect in the South Cobar Basin. The placement, done at a small 8.3% discount to the last traded price, is cornerstoned by Datt Capital and Lowell Resources Fund (ASX:LRT). The company notes that the funds raised will also be used to explore SER’s broader South Cobar Project along with advancing SER’s other exploration assets and general working capital. Another piece of news highlighted by the company is that Tony Gu, Datt Capital’s partner and head of research, has been appointed to the SER board as a non-executive director.

Niobium is having something of a moment this week, and RareX (ASX:REE) has acquired the district-scale Khaleesi project in WA’s Eastern Yilgarn region where historical drilling had returned elevated levels of niobium. It comes after the completion of successful $1.5m, internally brokered, capital raise. That news has pushed up the share price of the rare earths explorer/developer by an eye-catching 44% at time of writing. The acquisition has been dubbed the Khaleesi Project and is located along strike from the “highly endowed” Ponton Dyke deposit (most recently held by Galaxy Resources (ASX:GXY), since merged with Orocobre (ASX:ORE)), which has reportedly returned some of Australia’s best rare earth intersections – up to 28m at 10% total rare earth oxides (TREO) including 6m at 20.57% TREO.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining (ASX:KAL) was up today on its fresh discovery of extensive, thick gold mineralisation and anomalism at its Wessex target at the Pinjin project, following the first pass aircore drill program. New intercepts include: 28m at 1.27g/t Au from 36m, and 12m at 1.17g/t Au from 52m. Pinjin is situated at the southern end of the Pinjin Goldfield and is about 140 km northeast of Kalgoorlie–Boulder.

Cazaly Resources (ASX:CAZ) was up on no news, but a hell of a lot of trading volume. Not sure entirely, or at all, actually, what’s going with CAZ today to back up this rise, however.

Strickland Metals (ASX:STK) is also enjoying gold’s glow today after drilling results – including a highlight 17m at 10.6g/t Au from 144.7m – at the Palomino prospect “exceeded expectations”. Palomino is a prospect at STK’s 100% owned Yandal Gold Project in WA. These latest assays have turned high grade at “significant width”, says the company, and in addition to the highlight above, results also included: 13.7m at 6.3g/t Au from 133.4m (incl 3m at 20g/t Au). Further Palomino assays are “due shortly”, along with IP survey results, notes the company, which remains very well funded with about $51.4m in cash at the time of writing.

Wisr (ASX:WZR) has secured a $50m facility from global financial services firm Nomura, which will accelerate the non-bank lender’s path to profitability. Wisr has maintained deliberate moderated loan volume settings in Q3 FY24 but intends to pivot to loan volume growth settings in Q4 FY24 and beyond. WZR says its margins are expanding with portfolio net interest margin (NIM) 5.24% in Q4 FY24, slightly up on pcp of 5.20%. Quarterly revenue was $23.1m, a 4% decrease on pcp, while EBITDA of $300k, was an improvement on pcp, which recorded a loss of $800k. The company’s quarterly net operating cash flow of $4.5m, was a 13% increase on pcp.

AFT Pharmaceuticals (ASX:AFP) has reported record profits and robust growth for the 12 months to March, driven by strong sales of over-the-counter medicines in Australasia and growing demand in international markets. Full-year operating revenue was up 25% to $195.4 million, driven by sales in International and Asian markets which grew by 70%. Record EBITDA of $26.2 million, up 22%, and NPAT increased 46% on pcp to $15.6 million.

Lefroy Exploration (ASX:LEX) announced the results from its Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling campaign targeting the Havelock and Lucky Strike gold targets, which commenced in April. Significant assays returned include: 5m @ 4.22g/t Au from 145m and 7m @ 2.04 g/t Au from 37m.

And… Sun Silver (ASX:SS1) is preparing to carry out drilling at its Maverick Springs project in Elko County, Nevada, with three local contractors tendering for the drill contract. The drilling will upgrade the classification of the current inferred resource of 292Moz at 72.4 g/t and test expansional opportunities.

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Today’s best performing small cap stocks:

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
ME1	Melodiol Glb Health	0.002	-33%	257,285	$2,140,462
EDE	Eden Inv Ltd	0.002	-25%	6,001,943	$7,356,542
NAE	New Age Exploration	0.003	-25%	4,000,000	$7,175,596
TSL	Titanium Sands Ltd	0.006	-21%	703,510	$15,482,230
EXL	Elixinol Wellness	0.004	-20%	200,275	$6,505,370
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.002	-20%	470,000	$11,212,737
PUR	Pursuit Minerals	0.004	-20%	100,799	$14,719,857
SIT	Site Group Int Ltd	0.002	-20%	50,000	$6,506,226
IND	Industrialminerals	0.200	-18%	191,134	$16,846,200
88E	88 Energy Ltd	0.003	-17%	322,635,037	$86,678,016
ATH	Alterity Therap Ltd	0.005	-17%	109,000	$31,470,692
BUY	Bounty Oil & Gas NL	0.005	-17%	450,000	$8,991,006
GBZ	GBM Rsources Ltd	0.010	-17%	498,750	$13,880,267
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.003	-17%	2,819,137	$18,592,338
APL	Associate Global	0.105	-16%	67,757	$7,061,553
MEG	Megado Minerals Ltd	0.011	-15%	915,935	$3,307,922
HTG	Harvest Tech Grp Ltd	0.018	-14%	35,991	$17,049,015
CLZ	Classic Min Ltd	0.006	-14%	1,981,658	$2,348,987
GMN	Gold Mountain Ltd	0.003	-14%	292,373	$10,414,270
LPD	Lepidico Ltd	0.003	-14%	4,271,460	$30,061,918
BEO	Beonic Ltd	0.025	-14%	25,000	$12,310,353
G11	G11 Resources Ltd	0.039	-13%	1,281,065	$33,710,495
KLI	Killiresources	0.039	-13%	1,255,876	$4,510,068
BGE	Bridgesaaslimited	0.020	-13%	16,401	$2,746,132
ERL	Empire Resources	0.004	-13%	2,050,000	$5,935,653

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Bubalus Resources (ASX:BUS) has the green light to start maiden drilling at its Nolans East REE project in the Northern Territory after receiving the key Heritage Authority Certificate.

Godolphin Resources’ (ASX:GRL) newly defined exploration targets demonstrate the potential to expand the existing 94.9Mt at 739ppm TREO resource at its Narraburra rare earths project in NSW.

Hillgrove Resources (ASX:HGO) has extended mineralisation at the Spitfire West mineral system within its Kanmantoo underground mine to more than 250m vertically after drilling a further 30 holes.

Kula Gold (ASX:KGD) has identified substantial gold prospectivity at and around the historical Cammilleri mine within its Brunswick project in WA’s South West region where recent sampling had returned assays of up to 11.19g/t gold.

The first batch of assays from recent drilling at Venture Minerals’ (ASX:VMS) recent drilling has indicated that consistent high-grade zones of +2000ppm over 20-30m widths continue within broader zones of up to 80m that grade well over 1000ppm TREO.

TRADING HALTS

Australian Vintage (ASX:AVG) – pending an announcement to ASX regarding a Company update including an update on trading.

True North Copper (ASX:TNC) – pending an announcement to ASX regarding a proposed capital raising.

Neuren Pharmaceuticals (ASX:NEU) – pending an analysis of data and an announcement by the Company in relation to the top line results of its Phase 2 clinical trial in Pitt Hopkins.

Summit Minerals (ASX:SUM) – pending an announcement by Summit in relation to a capital raise.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Bubalus Resources, Godolphin Resources, Hillgrove Resources, Kula Gold, RareX, Strickland Resources, Strategic Energy Resources, Sun Silver, Venture Minerals and Wisr are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.