Earnings season is expected to throw up some pretty dire numbers from the world’s largest listed companies.

Analysts expect a 15 per cent decline in S&P 500 first-quarter earnings, Morningstar says, with profits for the energy sector estimated to slump more than 60 per cent, “raising fears of debt defaults, layoffs and possible bankruptcies”.

In Europe, Refinitiv data has STOXX 600 companies recording a 24.6 per cent drop in first-quarter earnings this week — steeper than last week’s 22 per cent.

But investors are already looking to the future, with Wall Street gaining more than 1 per cent on Monday after markets were encouraged by controversial plans from several US states to relax shutdown restrictions.

“Look, we know Q1 was bad given what happened in March,” Federated Hermes portfolio manager Steve Chiavarone told CNBC on Friday.

Scroll down for today’s best/worst performing small caps>>>

“We know Q2 is going to be disastrous in terms of what’s happening there. But, what we’re [hoping] to see is ‘what’s the path forward’ and when could we start to think about earnings getting back to 2019 levels.”

This morning, the ASX 200 is up slightly to 5,326.7 points, while the Small Ords Index has improved to 2,308.6 – up 26 per cent from those March 23 lows.

 

WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Tuesday April 28:

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CODE COMPANY PRICE CHANGE MARKET CAP
KP2 Kore Potash DRC 0.025 127.27% $17.1M
LHM Land Homes 0.005 150.00% $2.1M
ATP Atlas Pearls 0.008 60.00% $3.4M
OAR Oakdale Resources Ltd 0.004 33.33% $2.5M
CLZ Classic Minerals Ltd 0.002 50.00% $7.4M
RAG Ragnar Metals 0.006 50.00% $1.9M
RFN Reffind Ltd 0.002 50.00% $1.0M
LVH LiveHire 0.29 31.82% $87.7M
CAE Cannindah Resources Ltd 0.01 25.00% $1.6M
KEY Key Petroleum Ltd 0.003 25.00% $3.4M
CHK Cohiba Minerals Ltd 0.005 25.00% $3.3M
ERM Emmerson Resources Ltd 0.09 23.29% $38.2M
VMS Venture Minerals 0.016 23.08% $12.9M
BTH Bigtincan Holdings 0.725 21.85% $222.7M
JHL Jayex Healthcare Ltd 0.022 22.22% $3.9M
REZ Resources Energy Group Ltd 0.017 21.43% $6.6M
EPD Empired Ltd 0.325 20.37% $53.6M
AKM Aspire Mining 0.084 20.00% $42.6M
HNR Hannans Reward Ltd 0.006 20.00% $11.9M
GTR GTI Resources Ltd 0.012 20.00% $4.7M
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Tiddler Oakdale Resources (ASX:OAR) jumped 33 per cent on ‘nearology’ after acquiring an exploration project 8km from Chalice Gold Mines’ (ASX:CHN) Julimar nickel-PGE discovery near Perth in WA.

Oakdale says the Crown project covers “a series of prominent magnetic structures similar to and extending from the Chalice Gold Mine’s Julimar Complex” which have not been drilled tested.

LiveHire (ASX:LVH) is on a bit of a roll. In March, the company surged after winning a Queensland state government contract “to redeploy staff into critical areas of need in the wake of COVID-19”.

Today it announced a new contact win in North America sending the stock up another 30 per cent by lunch.

And software company Bigtincan (ASX:BTH) received a welcome +20 per cent boost after reaffirming guidance for FY20.

Bigtincan says it “remains on track to deliver 30-40 per cent organic revenue growth, with stable retention in FY20 as demonstrated by new wins and ongoing market execution”.

 

LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Tuesday April 28:

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

CODE COMPANY PRICE CHANGE MARKET CAP
CLT Cellnet Group Ltd 0.1 -25.93% $6.3M
MCT Metalicity 0.003 -25.00% $2.2M
LRS Latin Resources Ltd 0.003 -25.00% $1.1M
CZL Consolidated Zinc 0.004 -20.00% $6.9M
EPM Eclipse Metals Ltd 0.005 -16.67% $6.6M
GEV Energy Ventures Ltd 0.005 -16.67% $23.2M
KGM Kalnorth Gold Mines 0.017 -15.00% $15.2M
MVF Monash IVF Group Ltd 0.565 -14.78% $132.0M
MSB Mesoblast 3.38 -12.21% $1.8B
FMS Flinders Mines 0.028 -12.50% $97.6M
GMR Golden Rim 0.007 -12.50% $8.6M
IHR intelliHR 0.051 -12.07% $9.9M
GLL Galilee Energy Ltd 0.37 -11.90% $103.2M
MSE Metalsearch 0.008 -11.11% $9.4M
TAO Tao Commodities 0.04 -11.11% $1.3M
PTX Prescient Therapeutics Ltd 0.044 -10.20% $17.4M
LPI Lithium Power 0.135 -10.00% $35.5M
PGI Panterra Gold 0.027 -10.00% $5.3M
AVL Australian Vanadium 0.009 -10.00% $20.8M
ARQ ARQ 0.095 -9.52% $11.6M
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