In February, mounting coronavirus-led uncertainty finally culminated in a late-month share price bloodbath.

After a 3 per cent gain in January, the S&P/ASX Emerging Companies Index – which gauges the health of the microcap sector – had plunged 12.3 per cent at the end of February to mid-2019 levels.

Of the sub-$500m market cap companies on our list, 256 went up, 1261 went down, and 140 stayed the same over the month. Ouch.

But there’s always winners in times of crisis.

Featuring heavily on our top 50 were our small cap contingent of potential coronavirus fighters, including any company that mentioned ‘hand sanitiser’:

And despite a late-month hiccup, gold explorers also performed well.

That’s not surprising, given that the precious metal is considered a safe haven asset in times of economic catastrophe.

February 2020 Top 50 breakdown.

Here’s the top 50 small caps for the month of February>>>

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TICKER NAME % RETURN PRICE FEB 29 MARKET CAP
DEG DE GREY MINING 285 0.185 192.13M
UCM USCOM 148 0.310 46.34M
SKY SKY METALS 133 0.245 62.43M
ZNO ZOONO GROUP 118 1.895 309.48M
FHS FREEHILL MINING 115 0.029 39.90M
DGO DGO GOLD 114 1.930 81.69M
MDI MIDDLE ISLAND RESOURCES 100 0.008 14.12M
KIN KIN MINING 87 0.058 33.12M
MOH MOHO RESOURCES 77 0.076 3.73M
KRR KING RIVER RESOURCES 74 0.033 41.21M
AME ALTO METALS 73 0.057 16.72M
HCT HOLISTA COLLTECH 70 0.160 41.35M
CRM CARBON MINERALS 65 0.280 5.26M
CWL CHANT WEST HOLDINGS 64 0.100 12.68M
EXR ELIXIR ENERGY 60 0.032 16.03M
AVZ AVZ MINERALS 58 0.090 207.84M
GUL GULLEWA 50 0.045 6.98M
NSX NSX 50 0.180 40.28M
BIT BIOTRON 50 0.120 84.23M
TYX TYRANNA RESOURCES 50 0.003 3.17M
PUR PURSUIT MINERALS 50 0.006 2.12M
MRD MOUNT RIDLEY MINES 50 0.003 8.05M
TTT TITOMIC 48 0.980 125.02M
P2P P2P TRANSPORT 46 0.073 6.85M
MTC METALSTECH 45 0.058 6.78M
NCL NETCCENTRIC 45 0.029 7.61M
EHH EAGLE HEALTH HOLDINGS 44 0.180 63.20M
TPP TEMPO AUSTRALIA 40 0.059 17.77M
AQI ALICANTO MINERALS 40 0.080 20.27M
CE1 CALIMA ENERGY 40 0.007 15.09M
SCN SCORPION MINERALS 40 0.021 3.72M
BRV BIG RIVER GOLD 39 0.025 32.93M
SPX SPECTRUM METALS 39 0.125 175.69M
LOM LUCAPA DIAMOND CO 36 0.150 74.87M
PTR PETRATHERM 36 0.060 10.26M
BBX BBX MINERALS 36 0.170 70.28M
PCL PANCONTINENTAL OIL & GAS 33 0.002 10.81M
AUT AUTECO MINERALS 33 0.032 36.89M
LCY LEGACY IRON ORE 33 0.002 12.49M
KAI KAIROS MINERALS 33 0.008 8.16M
ADV ARDIDEN 33 0.004 7.15M
SBW SHEKEL BRAINWEIGH 33 0.160 22.24M
LTR LIONTOWN RESOURCES 31 0.110 186.34M
2BE TUBI PTY 30 0.150 36.47M
AEI AERIS ENVIRONMENTAL 29 0.505 108.00M
OVN OVENTUS MEDICAL 28 0.500 65.26M
NVA NOVA MINERALS 28 0.050 51.22M
A3D AURORA LABS 28 0.185 21.70M
8VI 8VIC HOLDINGS 27 0.330 13.38M
MX1 MICRO-X 27 0.190 47.50M
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Small Cap Focus: The Virus Fighters

USCOM (ASX:UCM) +148%

Market Cap:~$46m

Medtech Uscom is no bandwagoner. The tightly held cardiovascular and pulmonary medical device company is targeting global markets with its non-invasive tech.

In early February, it announced a “material increase” in orders from China, with some devices being specifically installed for the monitoring of hospital patients diagnosed with coronavirus.

Now the company says it is “approaching profitability”, driven in part by its rapidly expanding Chinese operations.

 

ZOONO GROUP (ASX:ZNO) +118%

Market Cap: ~$310m

New Zealand company Zoono (ASX:ZNO) makes anti-microbial sprays designed to kill germs and treat acne.

Sales have surged as the coronavirus epidemic/pandemic — and the fear of it — spreads, but the market darling was moving higher even before the first case of coronavirus was reported in China in December.

The stock has now run an incredible +3,315 per cent over the past six months.

 

HOLISTA COLLTECH (ASX:HCT) +70%

Market Cap: ~$41m

Holista CollTech is still up substantially, despite being forced to withdraw some claims it made in early February about its coronavirus fighting nasal sanitising balm.

The balm will use an ingredient called Path-Away, it declared, which has killed all previously tested coronavirus types as well as the AIDS virus.

The company has now retracted these statements “as a result of not technically complying with the level of disclosure required in accordance with the ASX Biotech Code, Code of best practice”.

 

BIOTRON (ASX:BIT) +50%

Market Cap: ~$84m

Biotron hit the big time in late 2018 with positive clinical trial data around an HIV cure, but hasn’t had much news to share with investors since.

On February 6, Biotron told investors that it had a “proprietary library” of different compounds used in the treatment of viral diseases, and is now assessing those compounds for applicability in tackling the current coronavirus outbreak directly.

 

EAGLE HEALTH HOLDINGS (ASX:EHH) +44%

Market Cap: ~$63m

Shares in the health and nutrition company – which made a $2.5m profit in FY19 — surged after it announced a “co-branding” arrangement with Zoono (ASX:ZNO) whereby it will import Zoono products to its facility in Xiamen, China.

 

AERIS ENVIRONMENTAL (ASX:AEI) +29%

Market Cap ~ $108 m

Aeris Environmental — not a health company — is also a coronavirus beneficiary after the Singapore National Environmental Agency (NEA) said its hospital-grade disinfectant had been added to a list of approved general products for virus disinfection.