Lunchtime ASX small cap wrap: who’s looking strong today

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Here are the key ASX small cap winners and losers at lunch Monday October 29:

Most Australian market indicies marched into positive territory this morning, ignoring a negative lead from the US — except the ASX Small Ords.

The Dow Jones fell more than 1 per cent or more than 300 points over the weekend while the NASDAQ and S&P 500 also lost ground.

Despite that the ASX200 and All Ords were up almost 1 per cent at 12.45pm AEST — while the Small Ords was still struggling to get out of bed. The small cap index was down 0.15 per cent to 2541 at lunch.

GOING UP

MedTech play Mach7 Technologies (ASX:M7T) broke the speed of sound this morning after winning a $15 million contract in Hong Kong.

The stock flew ahead 35 per cent t0 23c in early trade before cooling to 20c at lunch. It’s traded between 16c and 38c over the past year — though it reached as high as $1.15 back in 2015 after joining the ASX via a merger with a holographic software maker.

Under today’s deal, Hong Kong’s public hospital manager has chosen Mach7’s imaging software for a five-year contract worth HK$81 million ($14.5 million).

Mach7’s Enterprise Imaging Solution will be rolled out in hospitals across the region.

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Mining services player Watpac (ASX:WTP) is up more than 40 per cent to match a 92c take-over offer from Belgium contruction group BESIX.

Watpac independent directors “unanimously recommended” the off-market cash offer at 92c.

BESIX — which operates in 22 countries and reported $3.6 billion revenue last year — would start acquiring shares on-market from today via Macquarie Securities.

An independent expert rated the offer as “fair and reasonable” after valuing the stock at between 81c and 95c per share, Watpac said.

Musgrave (ASX:MGV) made big gains this morning after reporting more high-grade gold discoveries at its flagship project in Western Australia.

The stock hit an intraday high of 8.1c — a 37 per cent increase on Friday’s close.

The drilling results came from Musgrave’s Lake Austin North prospect close to the “Break of Day” gold deposit at the Cue project.

“Lake Austin North is proving to be a large, well-mineralised system and the current diamond drilling program will aim to further outline the size and grade of this new and exciting gold discovery,” said Musgrave boss Rob Waugh.

Muscular Dystrophy researcher Antisense Therapeutics (ASX:ANP) today resumed a big run that’s continued for two weeks despite any significant news.

The stock exploded 450 per cent to 9.4c two weeks ago and told the ASX it had no idea why. After a breather it was up 30 per cent today to an intraday high of 5.1c.

Antisense has been focusing on Phase 2 clinical trial for a treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a muscle-wasting disease that affects boys only — putting them in wheelchairs by their teens and cutting lives short in their 20s.

Today it revealed a quarterly cash-burn rate of $835,000 leaving $3.5 million in the kitty.

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 12.30pm Monday, Oct 29: 

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

GOING DOWN

Mini Amazon wannabe Kogan (ASX:KGN) fell heavily today after warning that its first-quarter margins were impacted by “competition from foreign websites selling into Australia without GST, a general decline in the strength of the AUD and other factors”.

The stock was down more than a third to $3.12 just before 1pm AEST.

Revenue from its “global brands” business decreased 27.4 per cent compared with that same quarter last year — driven by “changes in the GST law effective from 1 July 2018 and in particular, the now apparent avoidance of GST by a number of foreign websites selling into Australia”.

Marketing costs also jumped 30 per cent in the September quarter “on the back of both addressing the decline in sales of global brands, and bolstering growth in other product divisions”.

Revenue grew 15 per cent in Kogan’s exclusive brands range and 73 per cent in its “partner brands” range.

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 12.30pm Monday, Oct 29: 

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

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