Small caps have gained for a second day in a row, keeping pace with their larger peers.

The Small Ordinaries index of 100 small cap companies finished Thursday up 0.4 per cent to a fresh eight and a half month high of 3,074.70.

The ASX200 index was also up 0.4 per cent, to 6,615.3 following strong gains from the mining sector.

The Emerging Companies index was up 0.7 per cent to 1,903.2.

Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG) was a standout large cap performer, soaring 13.3 per cent to $20.65 as iron ore prices hit a seven-year high as Brazilian mining giant Vale said it expected to produce less of it in both 2020 and 2021.

In the smaller cap space, Appsvillage (ASX:APV) soared 134.4 per cent to 22.5c after signing an agreement with TikTok to launch its Jarvis advertising campaign manager on the TikTok platform.

Elsewhere on the ASX:

Announcements

Afterpay (ASX:APT) dropped 2.4 per cent to $96.20 after the buy now, pay later giant announced it had delivered over $2.1 billion of monthly underlying sales in November, up 216 per cent over the same period in 2019.

Splitit (ASX:SPT) dipped 0.8 per cent to $1.305 after also announcing Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping figures. Merchant sales volume from November 23 to November 30 was up 216 per cent to $US15.3 million ($20.6 million), compared to a year ago. Total shoppers have now surpassed more than 410,000, with 48,000 added over October and November.

Sezzle (ASX:SZL) fell 3.8 per cent to $6.29 after announcing it processed $153.9 million underlying merchant sales in November, up 188.5 per cent from a year ago. Its active consumers stood at 2.07 million, up 151.5 per cent from a year ago.

Althea (ASX:AGH) retreated 1.0 per cent to 51c after announcing it was expanding into South Africa with a new supply agreement to import Althea-branded finished products for sale and distribution in the country. Althea expects to receive about $650,000 in revenue from the deal.

Serko (ASX:SKO) advanced 0.2 per cent to $5.17 after the online travel booking and expense management for business company said it had seen a gradual improvement in transaction bookings in Australia after the easing of domestic travel restrictions here. November transaction volumes were 44 per cent of what they were in 2019, up from 35 per cent of prior year volumes in October.

Trading halts

Friday:

Nickel Mines (ASX:NIC) – capital raising
AppsVillage (ASX:APV) – announcement clarification
Duxton Broadacre Farms (ASX:DBF) – proposed asset sale
Papyrus (ASX:PPY) – capital raising
Ovato (ASX:OVT) – capital raising

Monday: 

BidEnergy (ASX:BID) – capital raising
Money3 Corporation (ASX:MNY) – capital raising
Latin Resources (ASX:LRS) – capital raising
Dampier Gold (ASX:DAU) – capital raising
Eden Innovations (ASX:EDE) – capital raising
Amaero (ASX:3DA) – capital raising
Gladiator Resources (ASX:GLA) – capital raising
Wildcat Resources (ASX:WC8) – price query