Lunchtime ASX small cap wrap: Who’s struggling with technology today?

US President Donald Trump has brought the hammer down and declared a national emergency over “threats against information and communications technology and services” in the US.

It’s mainly aimed at Chinese telco giant Huawei, which the US government believes is a backdoor for the Chinese government to spy on them.

An executive order to stop businesses doing business with China is… quite the handgrenade.

Amid the latest round of US-China tensions, small cap stocks edged higher into midday trade after a steady lead from US markets, which posted their second straight day of gains.

At 12pm eastern time, the ASX Small Ords was trading at 2,805.90 — a gain of 0.34 per cent. The index got a little jolt at 11:30am, when the Aussie dollar slipped again in the wake of some underwhelming employment data.

GOING UP

Hong Kong based e-commerce platform 99 Wuxian (ASX: NNW) caught the market’s attention, initially jumping to more than 13 cents — a gain of almost 100 per cent — before easing back to around 11 cents. Investors responded positively to the company’s March quarter update, released after markets closed late yesterday.

99 Wuxian said it booked revenue of $12.13m, up 78 per cent from Q1 2018, largely driven by sales of its online insurance product. The company has had a relatively chequered history since it first listed on the ASX boards in 2013.

Also flying was power infrastructure stock Volt Power (ASX: VPR), formerly known as Enerji. The minnow jumped to 0.2 cents in morning trade on no news, which was good enough for a gain of 100 per cent.

There were some other sharp moves higher among the mining minnows while small-cap tech players Fatfish Internet Group Ltd (ASX: FFG) and CCP Technologies (ASX: CT1) also had strong gains after releasing market updates earlier in the week.

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 11:30am on Thursday, May 16.

GOING DOWN

Skincare vendor BWX Ltd (ASX: BWX) had a sharp fall after releasing updated earnings guidance this morning. The company also announced the appointment of a new global CEO.

And oil and gas development company Red Sky Energy (ASX: ROG) was the worst performer in early trade, falling by 33 per cent to 0.2 cents per share.

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 11:30am on Thursday, May 16.