Last Orders: Small caps finish week up 1.4%, outperforming broader market

Small caps have gained again – rising for the fourth day in a row and the 10th time out of 11 sessions.

The Small Ordinaries index of the 101st to 300th biggest Australian companies on Friday advanced 17.7 points, or 0.53 per cent to close at a fresh 13-year high of 3,331.6.

The ASX200 gained just 4.9 points, or 0.07 per cent, with sectors mixed. Energy, consumer staples, financials and utilities declined while the other seven sectors advanced. Property was the biggest gainer, rising 1.5 per cent.

For the week, the Small Ords was up 1.4 per cent, while the ASX200 gained 0.98 per cent.

The Emerging Companies nano-cap index was up 0.8 per cent on Friday, closing the week up 1.4 per cent.

Merchant House (ASX:MHI) was the top gainer, rising 165.7 per cent to 12.5c after announcing that it would sell its Carsan textile manufacturing plant in China for $US20 million to a Chinese company. Merchant House cited difficult economic conditions in China and increased production costs for the reason.

Small cap news

Douugh (ASX:DOU) gained 6.1 per cent to 17.5c after the fintech completed its acquisition of Goodments, which owns an investing app in Australia offering more than 13,000 mostly younger customers a range of fractionalised US stocks and high-performing ETFs. Douugh is paying 8.2 million in shares for the company.

Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT) dipped 4.8 per cent to 2c after issuing an update on its activities at its WA exploration projects.

ECS Botanics (ASX:ECS) was flat at 5.2c after announcing it had dispatched its first shipment of medical cannabis from its facility in northwestern Victoria.

Laybuy (ASX:LBY) gained 2.2 per cent to 94c after the buy now, pay later company announced it had added a new chief operating officer and a chief marketing officer to its management team.