Small caps have had a good start to the holiday-shortened week, making up Friday’s losses to set a new 12-year closing high.

The Small Ordinaries index of 200 small cap companies finished Monday up 10 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 3,180.8.

It just – barely – eclipsed Thursday’s close to set a record for the Small Ords’ best finish since June 2008.

The ASX100 list of Australia’s 100 biggest companies was up about the same, 0.37 per cent, while the Emerging Companies nano-cap index rose by 0.94 per cent, to 2,133.9.

Most sectors were up – all save energy and industrials.

Consumer discretionary shares collectively gained the most, 1.2 per cent, as Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration approved the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, the country’s first inoculation against the virus.

Overseas student placement company IDP Education (ASX:IEL) rose 5.7 per cent to $21.58 and luxury car dealer Autosports Group (ASX:ASG) climbed 13.6 per cent to $1.84.

Announcements

– Mach7 Technologies (ASX:M7T) rose 9.0 per cent to $1.45 after the enterprise imaging company announced it had won a $7.9 million contract with a US hospital chain.

– Nyrada (ASX:NYR) gained 14.1 per cent to 44.5c after the Sydney biopharmaceutical company announced further results of research into its cholesterol-lowering drug candidate in mice.

– Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX) dropped 3.8 per cent to $4.36 after announcing that the first renal cancer patients had been dosed in phase 3 clinical trial of its diagnostic imaging product.

– Buddy Technologies (ASX:BUD) was rose 1.7 per cent to 5.9c after the smart home technology announced combined revenue of $6.2 million in October and November, a 45 per cent improvement over a year ago.

– Cyclopharm (ASX:CYC) gained 5.4 per cent to $3.10 after the nuclear medicine company announced it had completed a $30 million capital raising ahead of the expected approval of its Technegas lung imaging agent in the United States.

– CellMid (ASX:CDY) rose 9.5 per cent to 11.5c after the anti-aging skincare company announced it had received its first order from its Chinese distributor.

– Ansila Energy NL (ASX:ANA) announced that five offshore exploration blocks in the Southern North Sea had been awarded to Hartshead Resources by the UK Oil & Gas Authority. Ansila holds a 21.6 per cent equity interest in Hartshead.

Wednesday: 

88 Energy (ASX:88E) – drilling permit clarification
Archtis (ASX:AR9) – compliance update
Lindian Resources (ASX:LIN) – MOU on infrastructure solution
Galan Lithium (ASX:GLN) – capital raising
Trek Metals (ASX:TKM) – capital raising
New Talisman Gold Mines (ASX:NTL) – acquisition
Sacgasco (ASX:SGC) – transaction
Xstate Resources (ASX:XST) – acquisition
Crowd Media (ASX:CM8) – capital raising

Thursday: 

Kopore Metals (ASX:KMT) – acquisition
Skin Elements (ASX:SKN) – update to option underwriting agreement
Minbos Resources (ASX:MNB) – investment contract update
Strategic Energy Resources (ASX:SER) – capital raising
Perpetual Resources (ASX:PEC) – metallurgical results
King River Resources (ASX:KRR) – exploration results

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