Local stocks have shrugged off the increasingly slippery Delta variant to post steady gains in mid-week trade today.

The ASX200 rose early but dipped at the closing bell to finish 0.16% higher.

It was outperformed by the small end of town, as the microcap Emerging Markets index finished the 2021 financial year on a high note with a gain of 1.27%.

That followed two days of falls to start the week as local stocks struggled for traction amid COVID-19 lockdowns and the lack of any strong leads from global markets.

By sector, the big resources companies performed well while travel stocks also bounced back today after getting sold off heavily earlier this week.

Ahead of the Wall Street session tonight, US stock futures are offering little insight into the direction of the S&P500 and a short time ago were trading 0.03% higher.

ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY’VE MISSED

Nutritional Growth Solutions (ASX:NGS) told shareholders it has surpassed US$500k in wholesale sales for its Healthy Height shake range in Italy since its debut in March this year. The company chose Italy because of its large child population (of 8.2 million) but told shareholders it looked forward to entering more countries.

Coal stock Terracom (ASX:TER) has been given a six week extension on its bond maturity date from today to August 13. The company said it had reached a deal on the key indicative terms of the refinancing, which has a higher facility limit (US$215 million) and tenure (7 years) but lower interest rate of 9 per cent.

Spacetalk (ASX:SPA) announced its UK distribution partner would be expanding its suite of Spacetalk products available in the Old Dart. It is selling the next generation Adventurer smartphone watch and plans to launch next quarter.

Video equipment manufacturer Atomos (ASX:AMS) announced full year sales to $77 million. This was a record result and a 73% increase on FY21 in which it recorded $44.4 million.

EP&T Global (ASX:EPX), which sells energy efficiency software, revealed new contracts which increased its Annual Contract Value (ACV) to $10.9 million. The company says this represents a 34% increase since lodging its IPO prospectus in mid-March.

TRADING HALTS

Thursday

Leigh Creek Energy (ASX:LCK) – DL E&C agreement
rhipe (ASX:RHP) – control transaction
Sayona Mining (ASX:SYA) – court decision on NAL bid
Andromeda Metals (ASX:ADN) – capital raising
Applyflow (ASX:AFW) – capital raising

Friday

AVZ Minerals (ASX:AVZ) – capital raising
Kinetiko (ASX:KKO) – capital raising
Aguia Resources (ASX:AGR) – legal proceedings
Novatti (ASX:NOV) – capital raising
NeuroScientific Biopharmaceuticals (ASX:NSB) – safety and toxicity study
Arcadia Minerals (ASX:AM7) – response to AFR article