December ASX Winners Column: Health and telco stocks plus recapitalised resources companies won the month

ASX investors evidently shrugged off omicron fears in December, with the last month of the 2021 being the second best of the year.

Ultimately, the market finished 2021 13% higher than it started. Patience pays off, unless you got in at the top of the meme stock froth-fest.

Here are the 50 biggest winners among ASX small cap companies for the month of December 2021>>>

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The Top 3

Talk about a Christmas miracle.

Two years after entering administration Ark Mines (ASX:AHK) returned from the grave and is now up over 500% from the darkest of days.

The previously NT-focused company raised $4.7 million to rejoin the ASX boards with a handful of projects around regional Queensland.

Another company that returned from purgatory was Quantum Graphite (ASX:QGL), a company which has a graphite deposit in South Australia and is up 225% this month.

This company didn’t need to recapitalise but had been suspended for some months with the ASX advising exploration activities were insufficient to warrant quotation – but the bourse let the company trade again after picking up the drillbit.

Sandwiched in between the two was Carnaby Resources (ASX:CNB) – a company that finished December 459% higher than what it began, much of which was achieved in the last two weeks.

It made what has been described as a “spectacular” copper discovery at the Nil Desperandum prospect, part of the Greater Duchess  project in Queensland.

The company told shareholders it would conduct follow up drilling in the New Year.

AHK, QGL, CNB share price charts

Other ASX winners

A highly unusual number of companies in the ASX winners’ list belong to the telecommunications sector, home to mobile phone and broadband companies, internet and streaming services.

December winners include RMA Global (ASX:RMY) – a real estate platform operator whose offerings include the Rate My Agent website — and dating platform Love Group Global (ASX:LVE).

Game developer Playside Studios (ASX:PLY) and New Zealand broadcaster  Sky Network Television (ASX:SKT) round out the list and the latter (which has no relation to Sky in Australia or the UK) takes the cake.

This company substantially upped its guidance following a cost review from $115m-$130m to $150-$160m as well as its profit guidance from $17.5m-$27.5m to $40m-$48m.

The company got a further boost from selling off some of its properties, a transaction that will add another $56 million to its coffers in the new year.

The health sector also gave investors a handful of winners, none more so than Neuren Pharmaceuticals (ASX:NEU) which reported positive results from a Phase 3 clinical trial of its lead asset trofinetide against Rett Syndrome.

The next step for Neuren is FDA approval, a milestone that gives it the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. A Pre-New Drug Application meeting with the FDA is planned for Q1 2022, and the all important New Drug Application (NDA) is slated for mid-year.

Elsewhere, medtech Resonance Health (ASX:RHT) got approval from the FDA for its AI medical device LiverSmart, the second such device the US regulator has approved.

And pathology company Australian Clinical Labs (ASX:ACL), which only listed earlier this year, raked in the cash from increased levels of COVID-19 testing.