Japara leads 5 ASX small caps to watch on Tuesday 27 July. Picture Getty
Market Highlights and 5 ASX Small Caps to watch on Tuesday
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Wall Street rises ahead of Fed Reserve decision
All three major US benchmarks rose modestly on Monday to reach new records, as the market awaits the result of US Fed’s two-day meeting currently underway.
The Dow Jones and S&P 500 were up by 0.24% each, while the Nasdaq traded flat at 0.03%.
Shares in US-listed Chinese stocks plunged again over night, after the Chinese government announced plans to convert education companies into non-profits.
Tal Group fell another 26%, Gaotu Techedu plunged another 29%, while Alibaba dropped 7%.
Bitcoin rallies after a job vacancy posting by Amazon
In cryptos, Bitcoin was trading at US$37,250 level at 8am AEST, from the US$34,500 level on Monday.
The crypto rallied on Monday afternoon during Asian trading hours, after news circulated that Amazon had posted a vacancy for a digital currency and blockchain product lead.
Meanwhile, two leading cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance and FTX, have taken steps to reduce the leverage available their customers after criticism they were selling high-risk products to nonprofessional traders.
ASX 200 set to open higher on Tuesday
The ASX 200 looks set to open slightly lower at the open this morning, with futures markets (September contracts) pointing down by 0.07% at 8:30am AEST.
Yesterday, the benchmark index clawed back initial gains to start the week, but closed virtually flat.
As lockdowns continue, the Australian government is reportedly considering more subsidies to support distressed small and medium businesses, but has ruled out another round of Jobkeeper for now.
5 ASX small caps to watch today
The board of aged care company Japara has unanimously recommended the takeover of the company. Japara announced that it has entered into an agreement with Little Company of Mary Health Care for the acquisition of all shares in Japara, for $1.40 per share, valuing the company at $380 million. JHC closed at $1.17 on Monday.
The biotech company ended the quarter with cash of $5.3 million ($8.5 million at 31 March 2021), with net operating cash outflows for the period of $3.2 million. Highlights for the quarter include advancing two Phase 3 clinical trials in COVID-19 patients, which are currently underway.
The company said the June quarter has delivered $945,000 in revenue, which includes $665,000 of phytocannabinoid medicines. Other highlights in the quarter include epilepsy drug CannEpil being added by the Republic of Ireland to its Primary Care Reimbursement Service, which makes CannEpil free of charge when dispensed under Ireland’s Medical Cannabis Access Program.
TNT Mines (ASX:TIN)
The company says its GAIP (Ground Array Induced Polarisation) study has identified five high priority targets for discovery follow-up drilling at Reids Ridge. Highlights of the study include a 2.5km high chargeability anomaly, coinciding with mineralisation intersected in RRRC0011 at Reids North (44m @ 1.12g/t gold).
Ai-Media Tech (ASX:AIM)
The speech-to-text and transcription tech company has generated $5 million in positive operating cashflow in Q4, which was a $6 million improvement from Q3. Highlights for the quarter include securing a three-year contract with Sky News Australia for 24/7 captioning of news programming, using Ai-Media’s new Smart Lexi product.
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