Environmental Group tops this week’s ASX small cap winners and losers list

Exhaust maker The Environmental Group this week reported a “12,344 per cent” rise in full year profit — and its share price jumped almost as much.

Environmental (ASX:EGL) was the big winner of the week among ASX-listed small caps, zooming 162 per cent to 5.5c after reporting $1.7 million profit — up from a $14,000 loss.

Environmental’s explanation for the big profit jump was modest: “We completed reorganising our business model and the implementation of a clearer strategic direction.

“Growth has been redefined to embrace targeted marketing to build cash flow and gross margins.”

Meanwhile in the west, the pseudo-science of nearology was working a treat for explorer DGO Gold.

DGO (ASX:DGO) rocketed 130 per cent after reminding the market of the proximity of its land holdings in Karratha, WA — acquired several years ago — to other successful gold miners.

“We advised our shareholders of the land position relative to other explorers,” DGO’s executive chairman, Mr Eduard Eshuys, told Stockhead.

DGO’s Mallina project is 75 km east of Purdy’s Reward, where miner Artemis Resources (ASX: ARV) and partner Novo last month discovered 4cm gold nuggets.

“The recent discovery of abundant gold nuggets … by prospectors with metal detectors and the sampling activities by Novo and Artemis Resources at Purdy’s Reward highlighted the potential” for Mallina, DGO said.

“The reason [for DGO’s share price jump] is because of the potential discovery of gold mineralisation in Karratha,” Mr Eshuys said.

Shares in Corazon Mining (ASX:CZN) doubled after the Canada-focused base metals explorer raised about $2 million to fund exploration of its Mt Gilmore cobalt, copper and gold project in NSW and its Lynn Lake nickel project in Canada.

Meanwhile funky-sounding Netlinkz (ASX:NET) relisted this week after an epic eight-month suspension — and promptly jumped 88 per cent.

NetLinkz announced that five China Telecom customers would buy between 20 and 200 licences for its “cloud networking solution”.

Netlinkz believes it can sell up to 80,000 licences through China Telecom in the next two years, before expanding its distribution.

The software maker has arranged a three-year loan of up to $US9.4 million ($11.9 million) to fund its operation after cancelling an earlier equity deal.

The cash is much needed, as Netlinkz had just $21,865 in the kitty in March.

While suspended, NetLinkz sht down its Perth and US operations (leaving it with a Sydney office) and outsourced product development.

Pacific Bauxite (ASX:PBX) enjoyed an 82 per cent hike in its share price, prompting an ASX speeding ticket.

Pacific knew of no information that could explain the price jump but noted its imminent exploration of a newly acquired bauxite project and “positive market sentiment around the aluminium and bauxite industries”.

Cougar Metals (ASX:CGM) spiked 71 per cent to 1.6c before the company called a trading halt on Friday.

Cougar recommenced drilling in its Madagascar graphite mine this week after “unseasonal cyclonic rains and associated access problems caused unfortunate delays”.

Cougar had $657,000 in the kitty at the end of June and expected to spend about half that in the current quarter.

An announcement is expected on Tuesday.

Drill services provider Boart Longyear (ASX:BLY) rose 65 per cent after delivering a 15 per cent jump in revenue and net loss improvement in the half-year 2017.

The week’s ASX small cap losers

At the other end of the table, financial software maker GBST Holdings fell 45 per cent after announcing a 19 per cent fall in annual revenue to $88 million and a 30 per cent drop in EBITDA earnings to $12 million.

The business was hurt by higher product development and research costs, “client-related project delays” and currency movements.

Development of its E-VOLVE and ComposerWeb 2.0 software were “expected to cost up to $50 million and will be delivered over the next three financial years”.

GBST (ASX:GBT) closed at $1.70, down from $2.43 on Monday.

Adelaide’s Core Exploration(ASX:CXO) fell sharply after revealing on Wednesday that “economic lithium grades have not been intersected to date” at its Zola project in the Northern Territory.

Core finished down 41 per cent for the week at 3.8c.