Last Orders: The ASX starts the week slightly higher

After gaining 0.5 per cent in the first hour of trade the ASX only finished slightly upwards.

The ASX 200 closed at 7,029 points, which was 0.04 per cent higher than Friday. Small caps had a worse day – the ASX Emerging Companies Index closed 1.24 per cent lower at 2,103 points.

There was a big disparity between the best and worst sectors. On one hand financials gained 1.42 per cent and telcos gained 1.21 per cent but resources and energy both lost over 1 per cent and tech shed nearly 2 per cent.

The top stock today was Taruga Minerals (ASX:TAR), which made a copper discovery at its South Australian project.

ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY’VE MISSED

Eden Innovations (ASX:EDE), which makes EdenCrete (an additive that strengthens concrete) announced two new developments in its US rollout. First, United Airlines had utilised it in replacing concrete panels at its Denver Airport maintenance hangar. Second, it was being trialled at the Bandimere Speedway’s drag strip.

Magnis (ASX:MNS) announced a battery factory in New York directly owned by its subsidiary had acquired new equipment which will expand its annual production capacity to 1.8 gigawatt hours. It also revealed a minimum of $655 million of off-take sales were now secured.

The ASX’s newest uranium stock 92 Energy (ASX:92E) commenced an electromagnetic survey over its projects in Canada. It plans to map conductive graphitic rocks that are potential hosts for uranium thereby defining targets for a drilling campaign set to kick off in late June.

Digital Wine Ventures (ASX:DW8) announced it was teaming up with Earlypay (ASX:EPY) to launch a payment management solution for the wholesale beverage market – LIQUIDITY. The solution will be available to buyers of DW8’s wine selling platform WINEDEPOT.

Merchant House (ASX:MHI) has provided further details to the ASX on an announcement about an asset sale that saw it tripling in one day but shares will remain suspended and enquiries are ongoing. The company says it chose to sell out as its margins had been eroded and while it was not possible to state how much the closure would affect the company it would avoid sustained losses from an uneconomic operation.