Last Orders: Small caps fall for 3rd day in worst loss this month

It’s been a dismal day for the market, although small-cap investors can perhaps take some measure of solace knowing that the minnows weren’t as badly hit as the market titans.

The Small Ordinaries closed Friday down 37.6 points, or 1.18 per cent, to 3,146.8, in its third straight day of declines. It was the index of Australia’s 101st to 300th biggest companies worst loss since January 28.

For the week the index declined 22.1 points, or 0.7 per cent, about the same as last week. But thanks to a stellar performance in the first week of February, the Small Ords are still up 2.1 per cent for the month.

The Emerging Companies micro-cap index fell 0.55 per cent to finish the week down 0.57 per cent.

On the larger side of things, the ASX200 fell 1.34 per cent to finish the week down 0.19 per cent.

Most sectors were down, but consumer staples, tech stocks and property trusts edged higher. Energy was the worst hit, falling 3.6 per cent, dragged by oil and gas giant Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL), which fell 5.3 per cent to $24 following an update to its $16 billion Scarborough gas project .

Small-cap news

MGC Pharma (ASX:MXC) soared 31.6 per cent to 12.5 – and hit an all-time high of 13c – after the medical cannabis company signed a worldwide distribution deal for its anti-inflammatory food supplement.

Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR) soared 32.4 per cent to a three-year high of 4.9c after announcing that an airborne survey had detected strong electromagnetic conductors at its Warrior platinum-nickel-copper project in Western Australia.

Bionomics (ASX:BNO) gained 16.7 per cent to a two-year high of 35c, two days after the biopharmaceutical company announced it would team with a German company called EmphathBio to investigate combining its potential PTSD treatment with Empathbio’s MDMA derivative.

Sezzle (ASX:SZL) climbed 3.8 per cent to $10.85 after the buy now, pay later company signing a partnership agreement with a US neo-bank, Discover.

Among two Asian BNPL players that pumped this week, Fatfish (ASX:FFG) was flat at 14.5c, to finish the week up 173.6 per cent. IOUpay (ASX:IOU) fell 1.6 per cent to 61.5c, closing the week up 39.8 per cent.