Elon Musk continues to taunt the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) —  a war which began when the SEC accused Musk of misleading investors with claims he had the funds to take the firm private.

Maybe it’s a matter of pride, but the scuffle hasn’t panned out well for Musk or the Tesla share price so far, which immediately dropped following the latest tweet (not by much, but still…)

Anyway — after a small bump in the road, the ASX Small Ords has continued its recovery, gaining 2 points or 0.06 per cent to 2,758.40 at 12pm AEST.

Here’s how that looks for the year so far:

Here are the big movers among small cap stocks for today, February 26.

 

GOING UP

Advanced DRC copper and cobalt explorer Nzuri Copper (ASX:NZC) has received a $109m takeover offer — and reckons shareholders should accept it.

By midday, the Nzuri share price was up 21 per cent to 31c on high volume.

The all-cash offer from $2.5 billion Chinese company Chengtun Mining values Nzuri at 37c per share.

It’s 42 per cent higher than the last closing price of 26c, and a 64 per cent premium to the 3-month volume weighted average price; but it’s still well down on the 48c high reached in mid-January last year.

Nzuri told investors that the deal would “crystallise certain value” at a time when resources development projects faced “considerable funding hurdles and a range of market related and strategic risks”.

Fluence Corp (ASX:FLC) has revealed a big €165 million ($261m) water treatment plant contract for the Ivory Coast’s largest city, Abidjan.

The long-awaited news immediately put a rocket under the share price, which jumped up 14 per cent to 37.7c.

Other big winners in the super-small end of town include Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD), up 100 per cent to 0.2c; Ibuynew Group (ASX:IBN), up 96 per cent to 1c; and Manas Resources (ASX:MSR) up 33 per cent to 0.4c.

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 11.45am Wednesday February 27: 

 

ASX Code Name Last price Percentage change Market cap Volume
MRD Mount Ridley Mines 0.002 100% $4,700,000 1.6M
IBN Ibuynew Group 0.1 96% $2,200,000 10.0k
FPL Fremont Petroleum Corp 0.008 33% $9,900,000 6.5M
MSR Manas Resources 0.004 33% $10,600,000 171.5k
MTB Mount Burgess Mining 0.004 33% $1,800,000 80.0k
SRN Surefire Resources 0.004 33% $1,800,000 125.0k
ATP Atlas Pearls 0.02 31% $6,800,000 109.9k
BLY Boart Longyear 0.005 25% $131,500,000 40.0k
CYQ Cycliq Group 0.005 25% $4,800,000 78.4k
SUD Suda Pharmaceuticals 0.005 25% $12,900,000 1.8M
ENT Enterprise Metals 0.011 22% $4,300,000 50.0k
NZC Nzuri Copper 0.31 21% $93,200,000 955.4k
CUX Crossland Strategic Metals 0.006 20% $5,100,000 115.4k
SER Strategic Energy Resources 0.006 20% $5,400,000 210.0k
IPB IPB Petroleum 0.03 20% $6,000,000 992.6k
FXL FlexiGroup /Australia 1.53 17% $568,000,000 2.6M
E2E Eon NRG 0.007 17% $3,300,000 2.7M
TOU Tlou Energy 0.099 16% $40,500,000 507.3k
NTD National Tyre & Wheel 0.5 16% $51,300,000 86.8k
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GOING DOWN

The share price of health small cap Cogstate (ASX:CGS) took a 40 per cent hit to 28c after it forecast sales for the quarter to 31 March  “to underperform, consistent with sales results from the September 2018 and December 2018 quarters”.

The June quarter outlook looks more promising, but there’s still some uncertainty “in respect of sales conversion”.

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 11.45am Wednesday February 27: 

 

ASX Code Name Last price Percentage change Market cap Volume
TLM Talisman Mining 0.087 -62% $16,200,000 1.5M
CGS Cogstate 0.28 -40% $33,400,000 114.6k
FGO Flamingo AI 0.008 -27% $10,100,000 2.4M
CAJ Capitol Health 0.17 -27% $137,500,000 30.0M
ATS Australis Oil & Gas 0.28 -21% $257,600,000 2.7M
MLX Metals X 0.29 -21% $210,200,000 15.6M
SPQ Superior Resources 0.004 -20% $2,800,000 2.2M
QGL Quantum Graphite 0.002 -20% $15,000,000 633.0k
BUY Bounty Oil & Gas 0.004 -20% $3,800,000 180.0k
ICU iSentric 0.017 -19% $3,100,000 337.2k
AME Alto Metals 0.028 -18% $5,800,000 200.0k
AL8 Alderan Resources 0.071 -17% $9,200,000 67.7k
MRV Moreton Resources 0.005 -17% $15,500,000 1.0M
DW8 Digital Wine Ventures 0.005 -17% $3,500,000 1.5M
DTM Dart Mining 0.005 -17% $4,600,000 130.0k
CVS Cervantes Corp 0.005 -17% $2,500,000 320.9k
CLB Candy Club Holdings 0.17 -15% $23,600,000 15.2k
CTM Centaurus Metals 0.006 -14% $13,800,000 2.1M
DXN Data Exchange Network 0.1 -13% $21,500,000 80.3k
SI6 Six Sigma Metals 0.0035 -13% $1,600,000 41.7k
QFY Quantify Technology Holdings 0.007 -13% $6,800,000 5.7M
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Something completely different

China’s Xinhua news now has a fembot AI anchor: