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
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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
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