Lunchtime small cap wrap: biotechs and gold put investors in a spin

Here are the notable ASX small cap gainers and losers at 1pm AEDT Thursday.

The ASX Small Ords was trading up 1 per cent (+ 29.7 points) at 12.45 AEDT.

In the green

Positive results sent Immuron (ASX:IMC) on a wild ride today, rocketing to a 10-month high of 60c with almost 3 million shares changing hands.

The stock soared on news of positive study results for its anti-inflammation drug.

Profit-takers then pushed the stock back down to 43c by 1.15pm AEDT.

The Aussie drug-maker is developing and commercialising treatments for inflammatory and infectious disease, starting with liver enzymes for patients with NASH — a disease that causes liver damage.

“This is truly a proof-of-concept for this first-in-class drug candidate. The potential clinical applications for this drug candidate are numerous and very exciting indeed,” said the study’s lead investigator Professor Arun Sanyal.

Blackham Resources (ASX:BLK) told investors today it had logged another record month of gold production.

The shares surged as high as 7.5c on the news before cooling slightly to to 7.2c by 1.15pm AEDT — up 36 per cent.

Record production hit 6713 ounces for February, topping the previous record of 6498 ounces in January.

Average realised gold price for the miner was $1670 per ounce.

Crater Gold Mining (ASX:CGN) has resumed mining at its Crater Mountain site, reigniting trade this morning.

The stock was up 26 per cent to 2.4c — a 52-week high after trading stagnated from December. It had cooled to 2.3c by 1.15pm AEDT.

A halt was imposed by the Papua New Guinea authorities, but after several months of negotiation the company has re-started  mining at its flagship, pushing forward from historical data points.

Cancer drug developer Bard1 Life Sciences (ASX:BD1) continued its strong run from earlier this week, hitting 3c on Thursday before dropping back to 2.7c by 1.15pm AEDT — up 22 per cent.

Bard1 told investors independent testing confirmed high accuracy for detection of ovarian cancer with 89 per cent sensitivity (the number of patients correctly identified as having cancer) and 82 per cent specificity (the number of people correctly identified as not having cancer).

The results follow previously announced study results from January — confirming the test’s robustness and potential utility as a diagnostic aide for early detection of ovarian cancer, the company says.

Bryah Resources (ASX:BYH) today added manganese to its cache and investors can’t get enough.

Its stock surged as high as 17c this morning and was trading up 25 per cent at 15c by lunchtime.

The junior explorer uncovered high grades of the steel-making material and battery metal manganese at its Bryah Basin project in Western Australia, at grades of up to 49.5 per cent.

In the red

Wolf Petroleum (ASX:WOF) was on the nose for investors, its stock trading down 20 per cent at 1.2c.

The company — whose tagline is “hunting for Mongolia’s multi billion barrel oil” — had no news in the market.

Marketing platform OtherLevels (ASX:OLV) dropped 19 per cent to 5c — also on no news.

Last month it announced an expansion of its partnership with a major European customer, with a baseline value in excess of $2.25 million.

Shares in textile maker GLG Corp (ASX:GLE) slipped 17 per cent to16c with nothing new in the market.

Earlier this week junior miner MetMinco (ASX:MNC) announced a $5.3 million raise to refinance and restructure the company.

Today, its shares fell 16 per cent to 2.5c.

Under the offer, shares will be offered at 1c, and used to expedite a high impact exploration program on properties in Colombia.

The company said it was in the process of appointing a new board and executive team.

Resource Mining Corp (ASX:RMI) dropped 12.5 to trade at 1.4c, with no news.