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.

Ticker	Name	Price	% Chg	Market Cap	Volume
VPR	Enerji	0.002	100.00%	115.00K	12.37m
NNW	99 Wuxian	0.135	95.65%	2.94M	156.56m
VAR	Variscan Mines Ltd	0.002	50.00%	2.87M	1.27m
MGT	Magnetite Mines	0.007	40.00%	409.66K	5.17m
LRS	Latin Resources Ltd	0.002	33.33%	290.00K	5.07m
CCA	ChimpChange	0.07	29.63%	859.69K	6.42m
SUD	Suda	0.005	25.00%	20.07M	12.91m
PSM	Peninsula Mines Ltd	0.005	25.00%	396.01K	4.96m
FFG	Fatfish Internet Group Ltd	0.016	23.08%	3.49M	9.93m
CT1	CCP Tech	0.011	22.22%	582.86K	4.91m
AND	Andromeda Metals	0.009	21.43%	21.28M	10.84m
ELT	Elementos Ltd	0.006	20.00%	155.84K	9.27m
EQE	Equus Mining Ltd	0.007	16.67%	710.00K	6.28m
CFE	Cape Lambert Resources	0.014	16.67%	1.07M	14.28m

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.

Ticker	Name	Price	% Chg	Market Cap	Volume
ROG	Red Sky Energy	0.002	-33.33%	1.00M	2.23m
KTA	Krakatoa Resources Ltd	0.021	-25.00%	25.00K	2.47m
BWX	BWX Ltd	1.515	-24.25%	2.59M	189.48m
NAG	Nagambie Mining Ltd	0.04	-20.00%	83.25K	17.50m
ETE	Entek Energy	0.006	-14.29%	320.00K	2.94m
ARV	Artemis Resources	0.035	-10.26%	3.71M	23.17m
EXP	Experience Co	0.255	-13.56%	630.42K	138.95m
UCM	Uscom Ltd	0.15	-11.76%	5.00K	20.65m
SLC	Superloop Ltd	1.72	-10.65%	1.95M	433.14m
MPW	MSL Solutions	0.12	-11.11%	100.29K	29.98m
NAM	Namoi Cotton	0.3	-10.45%	20.44K	41.44m
SVL	Silver Mines Ltd	0.038	-7.32%	1.90M	27.22m
DXN	The Data Exchange Network	0.06	-9.52%	159.84K	14.6m
TMR	Tempus Resources	0.15	-11.76%	40.15K	4.65m