Lunchtime ASX small cap wrap: who’s getting the royal treatment

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Here are the key ASX small cap winners and losers at lunch Monday October 15:

The ASX Small Ords was down 1.2 per cent or 32 points to 2,659.70 by 12.40pm AEST.

GOING UP

HIV fighter Biotron (ASX:BIT) is now a $100 million company after the stock continued to soar today — continuing its stellar run over the past few weeks.

Biotron is a now a ten-bagger — and then some — after two weeks ago announcing positive trial results for its HIV treatment.

Biotron later confirmed to Stockhead it was on the hunt for a funding partner to move to the next stage of testing.

At the time, the stock jumped 750 per cent to 18c before profit-taking saw it halve to 8c.

Since then it’s almost tripled to 22.5c — today marching past $100 million market cap with another 30 per cent gain after winning a $1 million R&D tax refund.

Here’s the share price over the past few weeks:

Orbital (ASX:OEC) zoomed ahead 18 per cent to 55c after signing a deal with a Boeing subsidiary for its propulsion systems for drones.

The shares have traded between 32c and 57c over the past year.

Orbital says an expanded long term agreement with Insitu has a potential value between $120 million and $350 million over five years.

The full value depends on confidential Insitu customer contracts and volumes.

Orbital last month reported improved full-year results including a $2.2 million profit from $21 million revenue.

Oil explorer Carnarvon (ASX:CVN) moved up 8 per cent to an intraday high of 42c after finding neighbouring prospects to its now-famous Dorado oil discovery could hold more than  928 million barrels of oil and gas.

Carnarvon made headlines in July and August when its aptly-named Dorado-1 well hit oil and condensates — gas so heavy it’s liquid — in a new kind of sandstone reservoir.

The existing reservoir holds a resource of 171 million barrels of gross contingent oil. Contingent resources are known, potentially recoverable volumes with a development plan that is not yet commercial.

The new targets announced today are in a permit zone known as “Arith” — and one in particular, Roc South, holds the most potential, with Carnarvon putting the probability of success at 63 per cent.

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Shares in gold explorer Stonewall Resources (ASX:SWJ) leapt higher after initial studies indicated its open pit “Theta” gold project in South Africa could be a cash cow.

Stonewall shares — which have traded between 0.7c and 2.1c over the past year — jumped 25 per cent in Monday morning trade to 1c.

Stonewall believes it can produce 67,000 ounces a year for over seven years at a very low cost of $800 per ounce.

Most mines of this size produce at an AISC of well above $1000/oz.

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 12.15pm Monday October 15:

Swipe or scroll to reveal the full table. Click headings to sort

GOING DOWN

Otto Energy (ASX:OEL) sank nearly 30 per cent today after it bombed on its second well in a week.

The company told investors this morning it was unable to find sufficient hydrocarbons in its initial exploration well at the “Big Tex” prospect in the Gulf of Mexico to justify bringing the well into production.

The news sent shares down to an intra-day low of 5.9c. They recovered slightly to 6.2c by midday AEST.

Last Thursday, Otto said a well at its Bivouac Peak East prospect was also “non-commercial”.

The Bivouac Peak East prospect is part of a joint venture with Byron Energy (ASX:BYE).

“The Otto team is obviously disappointed with the results of the two wells this past week, but we have immediately turned our attention to the next well in the Hilcorp program as part of our portfolio approach to exploration,” managing director Matthew Allen said.

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 12.15pm Monday October 15:

Swipe or scroll to reveal the full table. Click headings to sort

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