Lunchtime ASX small cap wrap: who’s punching above their weight

Here are the key ASX small cap winners and losers at lunchtime Thursday, Aug 2:

The ASX Small Ords was down 6 points or 0.2 per cent to 2824 by 12.30pm AEST.

GOING UP

Lender Money3 (ASX:MNY) has a very pretty share price graph this year.

The small lender — it does car loans up to $35,000 and cash loans to $8000 — today hit record levels after upgrading its full-year profit guidance (after tax) to $32 million.

That’s up from a $31 million expectation in May.

The news sent shares up 10 per cent to an intraday high of $2.22 — their highest level since listing in 2006. They cooled to $2.07 by 12.50pm AEST, however.

A final dividend — to be confirmed with final results — will be “at least 4.5c per share”.

Todd River Resources (ASX:TRT) bounced 23 per cent to an intraday high of 10.2c after announcing very strong drilling results at its high-grade base metals discovery in the Northern Territory.

The latest drilling at its Mount Hardy copper and zinc project returned 13.5m grading 15.9% zinc, 5.75% lead and 0.9% copper.

“We’re very excited and clearly we think we’re onto a discovery that could turn into something quite important for the company,” said Todd River chief Will Dix.

More assays (or lab tests) are pending and further drilling is planned.

The shares were trading at 9.5c just before 1pm AEST.

Newly listed Vonex (ASX:VN8) put on 11 per cent to 15.5c after winning a local partnership with NASDAQ-listed communications play CounterPath.

The junior telco will sell a Vonex-branded version of CounterPath’s Bria software which allows businesses and consumers to easily make phone calls over the Internet.

The announcement wasn’t enough to drive Vonex above its issue price however.

• Subscribe to our daily newsletter
• Bookmark this link for small cap news
• Join our small cap Facebook group
• Follow us on Facebook or Twitter

Vonex listed in June after raising $6 million selling shares at 20c.

Back in 2015 the company negotiated a reverse takeover of Aleator Energy, but the listing was short-lived.

Resource Generation (ASX:RES) continued to rise after yesterday finalising a contract to build a plant that can process 15 million tons of raw coal per year at its South African mine.

ResGen yesterday gained 20 per cent to 4.5c. In early Thursday trade it put on another 22 per cent to 5.5c.

ResGen is developing the “Boikarabelo” coal mine in South Africa’s Waterberg region. The Waterberg accounts for some 40 per cent of the country’s known coal resources.

Brazil-focused explorer Aguia Resources (ASX:AGR) jumped more than 30 per cent to an intraday high of 24c after reporting strong gold results at a project in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Aguia reported 13.14 grams per tonne gold in one of 17 samples reported. Anything above 5g/t is considerd high-grade gold.

The findings also “may provide a strong indication of the possible presence of copper-bearing sulfide minerals at shallow depth”, Aguia told investors.

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Thursday, Aug 2:

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

GOING DOWN

Plastic pallet maker Range International (ASX:RAN) sent a chill through investors after announcing it had “become aware of potential inconsistencies with production and operation processes” at its factory in Indonesia.

The shares dropped more than 30 per cent to an intraday low of 3.9c.

Range has brought in advisory group FTI Consulting “to assist in an investigation into these matters.

“FTI Consulting will look at all major areas of Range’s business and manufacturing operations to ensure the company has a clear and profitable plan moving forward.”

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm Thursday, Aug 2:

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