Morning gains turned into afternoon losses for the Australian share market, and while small caps weren’t as hit as hard as some they weren’t able to escape the damage.

The Small Ordinaries closed Friday down 46.7 points, or 0.67 per cent, to 6,870.9, while the All Ordinaries dropped 0.68 per cent.

It was the third straight day of losses for the Small Ords, which is now back at about the same place it was January 12.

For the week the index of 200 small-cap companies was down 2.84 per cent, while the broader All Ordinaries dropped 2.94 per cent.

The market was up strongly at the open, with the All Ords rising 1.2 per cent in the first 40 minutes of trade, but it then sunk in the afternoon.

A few sectors were up, including healthcare which rose 1.4 per cent, while energy was the worst performer, down 2.4 per cent.

The bizarre saga of GME Resources (ASX:GME) continued for another day as punters apparently confused the WA junior explorer with Reddit favourite Gamespot (NYSE:GME).

GME shares had been trading around 7c this month before starting to surge on Wednesday as the Gamespot story took off.

On Thursday they finished at 8.5c and briefly hit as high as 13c on Friday morning before the company entered a trading halt as it answered an ASX price query. (The company said told the ASX it had no explanation for the price spike other than the media reports about Gamespot).

GME shares resumed trading after lunchtime and closed down 20 per cent at 6.8c.

Nineteen million GME shares changed hands – compared to 12 million in all of 2020.

Other small-cap news

Renergen (ASX:RLT) gained 33.3 per cent to $2.04 after the emerging helium and natural gas company contracted with three companies for an engineering study of a gas project in South Africa.

Ikwezi Mining (ASX:IKW) rose 11.1 per cent to 50c after announcing coal sales for the December quarter totalled $5.1 million, up from $3.9 million in the September quarter.

Volpara Health Technologies (ASX:VHT) and Nyrada (ASX:NYR) went into trading halts pending announcements that seemed set to be released on Monday.

Volpara, a Kiwi breast density software company, was prepared to announce a potential corporate acquisition, while Nyrada was poised to announce a “material collaboration advancement” to advance the biopharmaceutical company’s preclinical compound to protect against traumatic brain injury.

ResApp Health (ASX:RAP) dropped 11.5 per cent to a 10-month low of 6.9c after the respiratory company announced that it had achieved just 1,121 downloads of its $7.99 SleepCheck apnea-detecting app during the quarter, taking total downloads to 5,067.

“Growth during the period was slower than anticipated primary due to the challenges face din the UK and the effects of lockdowns brought on the spread of COVID-19,” ResApp said, adding that it was re-evaluating its marketing strategy and reducing UK-focused efforts until lockdowns were eased.

Trading halts

Monday: 

4DS Memory (ASX:4DS) – wafer manufacture update
Indiana Resources (ASX:IDA) – capital raising
MRG Metals (ASX:MRQ) – capital raising
Primewest (ASX:PWG) – capital raising
Revasum (ASX:RVS) – capital raising
Micro-X (ASX:MX1) – capital raising

Tuesday: 

Ironbark Zinc (ASX:IBG) – price query response
Alterra (ASX:1AG) – AGM outcome
Golden Rim Resources (ASX:GMR) – capital raising
Volpara Health Technologies (ASX:VHT) – acquisition
Eastern Iron (ASX:EFE) – capital raising
Nyrada (ASX:NYR) – collaboration agreement