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Lunchtime ASX small cap wrap: who took a nosedive today
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Here are the key ASX small cap winners and losers at lunch Thursday December 6:
The ASX Small Ords fell 17.8 points — or 0.69 per cent — to 2,554.30 at 12:00pm AEST.
WINNERS
Farming tech turned industrial hemp play Croplogic (ASX:CLI) went on an absolute tear this morning on no news.
In response to a subsequent price and volume query, the company told the ASX it has no idea why the stock is moving so much.
It’s gone from 1.7c to a high of 5c – a 194 per cent increase – before settling at about 2.8c by midday.
Croplogic jumped on the hemp hype train in late November, appointing two advisors to find opportunities in the Oregon industrial hemp market.
Industrial hemp, which contains low levels of THC and slightly higher levels of cannabidiol (CDB), is due to be legalised in the US once the 2018 Farm Bill is passed, a piece of legislation that is being held up due to non-hemp related factors.
A group of Angolans are so keen on copper explorer VDM Group (ASX:VMG), they were prepared to pay a 400 per cent premium to Tuesday’s share price to get in.
The company locked in $6m in cash via a private placement priced at 1c a share — on Tuesday the stock closed at 0.2c.
Shares rallied 50 per cent on the back of the news, hitting an intra-day peak of 0.3c. Nearly 2 million shares had changed hands by midday AEDT.
And junior explorer Estrella Resources (ASX:ESR) witnessed a nice surge in its share price today after telling investors it had returned “spectacular” high-grade nickel sulphide hits from a project called “Spargoville”.
Investors drove shares up to an intra-day peak of 3.3c. More than 38 million shares worth about $1.1m had changed hands just before midday AEDT.
Recent drilling at Spargoville delivered nickel grades of up to 12.9 per cent just 69m from surface. Grades of as high as 10.45 per cent were found just 20m down.
High-grade nickel is anything from about 3 per cent upwards.
| ASX Code | Name | Intraday price change | Price 12pm AEST THURS | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLI | Croplogic | 87.50% | $0.030 | 17.3 million |
| VMG | VDM Group | 50% | $0.003 | 500,000 |
| AHY | Asaleo Care | 41.6% | $0.885 | 5.2 million |
| RNX | Renegade Exploration | 33.33% | $0.004 | 3 million |
| ESR | Estrella Resources | 30% | $0.026 | 36 million |
| ENB | Eneabba Gas | 25.00% | $0.005 | 300,000 |
| RDN | Raiden Resources | 22.22% | $0.011 | 7.3 million |
| ESE | Esense-Lab | 8.82% | $0.037 | 2 million |
| PNN | Pepinnini Lithium | 20.00% | $0.006 | 100,000 |
| RXH | Rewardle Holdings | 20.00% | $0.006 | 500,000 |
LOSERS
Freedom Insurance (ASX:FIG), savaged in the financial services royal commission for its direct telephone sales, dropped almost 44 per cent to 3.1c after saying it may face a “liquidity shortfall” in 2019.
The share price was as much as 56c about a year ago.
In October, Freedom announced the suspension of telephone sales and a restructuring of operations to focus on the maintenance and servicing of existing policy holders while examining options for the business.
Following communication from ASIC, Freedom also says it will probably be required to make remediation payments to affected customers, which it reckons could be up to $4m for the period ending December this year.
| ASX Code | Name | Intraday price change | Price 12pm AEST THURS | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBN | iBuyNew Group | -50.00% | $0.001 | 4 million |
| FIG | Freedom Insurance Group | -45.45% | $0.030 | 4 million |
| XPE | XPED | -33.33% | $0.002 | 200,000 |
| ADX | Adx Energy | -23.08% | $0.010 | 12,500 |
| TLM | Talisman Mining | -21.31% | $0.240 | 8,000 |
| BUY | Bounty Oil and Gas | -20.00% | $0.004 | 500,000 |
| XST | Xstate Resources | -20.00% | $0.004 | 400,000 |
| ELT | Elementos | -16.67% | $0.005 | 65,000 |
| SUD | Suda Pharmaceuticals | -16.67% | $0.005 | 8.4 million |
| MZN | Marindi Metals | -16.67% | $0.005 | 390,000 |
