Despite much of Australia spending some or all of July in lockdown, the ASX 200 rose 1.7% and the top 50 winners all gained 45% or more.

And that wasn’t the only joy during the month.

Our Olympians are doing us proud bringing home 33 medals, including 14 gold (as at August 2).

Despite how slow the vaccine rollout has been in Australia, July was a good month as we went from 7.6 million doses to over 12 million.

Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin went into space.

Arguably Australian soccer fans had the most mixed month of all. On one hand, England lost the Euros and to Australia in the Olympics.

But of course the Matildas then lost to Sweden…

 

Here are the top 50 ASX small caps for the month of July 2021>>>

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Top 3 ASX winners in July

One stock stood above the rest on the ASX July winners list and it only listed on the ASX on July 1.

But that company – rare earths explorer Australian Rare Earths (ASX:AR3) – is up 155% one month into listed life.

This company’s Koppamurra project in South Australia and Victoria is Australia’s largest ionic clay hosted rare earth element (REE) deposit as well as one of only two exchange listed opportunities globally.

AR3 already has an inaugural JORC Inferred Mineral Resource of 39.9Mt at 725ppm TREO (Total Rare Earth Oxides) and is awaiting assay results from its latest drilling program some time this quarter.

Nearly two weeks after listing it announced it expanded its tenure by 40%, being granted an additional 649km2.

Taking silver was engineering firm WestStar Industrial (ASX:WSI) which rose by 125%.

Among its achievements this month were winning a a $145 million contract for Fortescue’s Iron Bridge Magnetite project and a $10m contract to install piping at the Avertas Energy waste facility in Kwinana, Western Australia.

In third spot was Okapi Resources (ASX:OKR) which has traditionally been a gold play but in July entered the uranium space.

It acquired US uranium explorer Tallahassee Resources and its portfolio of uranium projects.

The flagship is the Tallahassee uranium project which contains a JORC 2004 mineral resource estimate of 26 million pounds of uranium oxide at a grade of 540 parts per million, with serious exploration upside.

 

Other notable winners

There were several takeover offers that grabbed the market’s attention during July, most pertinently Sydney Airport (ASX:SYD).

While that offer was rejected, one that was accepted was Youfoodz (ASX:YFZ).

The meal kit deliverer had only been listed for seven months but got an offer from industry giant HelloFresh at 93 cents.

While the offer was a hefty premium to its 51 cent price on the day before, investors who bought shares at $1.50 a pop at its IPO would arguably be disappointed.

Another was online car market place iCar Asia (ASX:ICQ). While it is not a done deal just yet, iCar has agreed to enter into a six-week Process Deed with intent to agree upon a deal suitable for both parties.

Another notable winner was retailer Mediland Pharm (ASX:MPH). The company has run brick and mortar stores focused on Chinese tourists – a market that has dried up ever since Australia’s borders closed.

It has sought to diversify its business by buying a hotel in New Zealand back in April.

In late July it told shareholders the purchase was beginning to generate some cash return. While only $430,000, it made a significant dent in the company’s cash outflow.

A handful of other winners came from energy thanks to oil and coal prices continuing to recover from their COVID-19 lows.

The top stock in that space was Atrum Coal (ASX:ATU), one of several companies on the ASX and elsewhere affected by regulatory hurdles in Canada’s Alberta province.

The company has given its shareholders hope its project might still be possible, including a $3.2 million capital raising.

Fellow coal company Cokal (ASX:CKA) also ran hot during July in as it prepares to start production and sales from its Bumi Barito project in Indonesia.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Okapi Resources is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.

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