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
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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
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