• The ASX 200 benchmark fell 1.14% as debt ceiling and inflation woes juggled the market’s plums pretty hard
  • Tech stocks bucked the trend magnificently, though, thanks to Nvidia’s efforts to crack the Magic Trillion mark
  • Blaze Resources won the Small Caps war with a super-duper 110% lift for the week

 

The ASX has US chipmaker Nvidia to thank for saving it from a complete disaster this week, after it gave enough of a boost to the local InfoTech sector to off-set some of the rest of the local market’s less-than-ideal performance.

Overall, the benchmark took a bit of a battering, shedding 1.14% as the US debt ceiling worries, US and UK inflationary issues and – late in the week – Germany ticking into a technical recession sat on the market’s chest and made it difficult to breathe, or concentrate.

But the Nvidia surge towards becoming a trillion dollar company boosted InfoTech well past the rest of the market, with the XTX All Tech index finishing the week 3.32% higher, after gaining ground on Monday, yesterday and today.

The more broadly defined InfoTech sector was up 6.9% for the week, a tiny speck in the distance from where second placed Energy was left standing on +1.3%.

Telcos and Financials closed the week flat, and the rest of the sectors were pure, deep-fried garbage.

Materials fared worst, down 3.6% for the week, below Consumer Discretionary (-2.8%) and Real Estate (-1.67%).

 

The Biggest Loser

Normally, I do my best to avoid mocking high profile investors for their obvious mis-steps – except if it’s CNBC’s resident foghorn Jim Cramer, because he looks like a 1,000 year old baby and picks winners about as well as one, too.

But I can’t go past throwing a couple of well-aimed rocks at Cathie Wood, because of the nes that her flagship Ark Innovation ETF dumped its holding of Nvidia just before the stock went on an AI frenzy.

ARKK had been sitting on about 750,000 Nvidia shares since August 2020, but cut that position to under 39,000 shares by November, before selling all of them completely in January.

Wood patiently dorksplained in February that Nvidia was “way overvalued”, saying at the time that “we like Nvidia, we think it’s going to be a good stock. It’s priced — it’s the ‘check-the-box’ AI company.”

“But for our flagship fund, where we’ve consolidated towards our highest conviction names, part of that [selling Nvidia stocks] has to do with valuation,” she told CNBC.

The Nvidia stock price has risen by 165% since January 1st, leaving Cathie’s face so covered in egg, it’s begining to look like the floor of an untidy barn.

Ah well… you can’t win ‘em all, right?

And on that note, here’s a more in-depth look at the week that was.

 

Monday: Benchmark down 0.22%.

InfoTech clearly had some advanced “I can see through time” AI witchcraft happening on Monday, choosing a slow day to launch this week’s tilt at Total Market Domination™.

Despite a fairly mundane market-wide effort, InfoTech took the going with a 1.2% surge thanks to an interesting double-rally over the course of the session.

Energy (+1.0%) and Health Care (+0.5%) were the only other sectors making meaningful stabs into positive territory.

The Small Caps winner for the day was Wildcat Resources (ASX:WC8), which picked up where it left off at the end of last week and resumed its effort to reach interstellar space, adding  34.5% to take its gains for the month past 160%.

Wildcat’s climb was on news it had entered into a conditional, binding agreement to acquire 100% of the Tabba Tabba Tantalum Mine and Lithium-Tantalum Project, 50km from Port Hedland in the Pilbara, WA.

In second place was Westar Resources (ASX:WSR) booming 33% on no news and closing in on its recent 15 May high of $0.052 per share, while Noble Helium (ASX:NHE) closed up 25.8% after releasing a very promising operational update from its North Rukwa project in Tanzania.

 

Tuesday: Benchmark Flat.

After a half-decent +0.3% launch in the morning, the benchmark suffered a major heart attack, flatlining just in time for the market to groan to an undignified close, like it was flat on its back in the middle of a shopping mall, surrounded by ghoulish, gawking rubberneckers.

Financials finished up top on +0.77%, while the story of the day was a fairly spectacular fall from grace by InfoTech, thanks to a solid bed-shitter from BrainChip (ASX:BRN), after it sensationally revealed that it had earned itself a strike today, after shareholders gave the company’s remuneration report the Big Don’t Argue.

The news sent BrainChip’s trading price a-fallin’ hard, just days after breaching the $900m market cap milestone, down more than 17.6% in a single day to land at $720m, on a memeworthy $0.420 a share.

Westar Resources (ASX:WSR), was the Small Caps winner, in spite of having the ASX hobble the stock for nearly 90 minutes in the middle of the day with a speeding ticket.

When the Watch Dogs yanked on the “WTF is even happening?” handle, WSR had already soared 76%, and the trading pause obviously slowed things down a little.

But the Westar team was on the ball, responding in double-quick time to the speeding ticket it had to have seen coming from a mile away, but the hot streak was over by the time it was reinstated, leaving the company sitting on a still happy (but might have been happier…) 64% gain for the day.

In second place was an at-the-time baffling jump for Sultan Resources (ASX:SLZ) which appeared to have attracted what looks like semi-unwarranted attention from somewhere, after a massive spike in interest on no news saw the company snag a 23.4% gain.

Now, I don’t want to be a tattle-tale, or allege anything untoward – but I am honour-bound to mention here that since that “inexplicable” spike on Tuesday, Sultan has today gone public with news that it’s raised a bunch of money and is finalising the purchase of two hot lithium projects in Ontario, Canada’s ‘Goldilocks’ zone.

RTG Mining (ASX:RTG) finished third with a solid 22% today on the back of an after-hours announcement to the market that landed right in the middle of dinner time, saying the company has reached a comprehensive settlement of all outstanding issues with the Villar Family-controlled Sage Capital and TVI Resource Development (TVIRD), and a binding Memorandum of Agreement signed.

 

Wednesday: Benchmark down 0.64%.

It was a weird old day on the market on Wednesday, after InfoTech nosedived at open, rallied hard to be miles ahead of the market, and dropped dead around 2:45pm. It was actually pretty remarkable to watch.

Across the course of the day, Energy (+0.6%) and Utilities (+0.25%) were the only sectors hauling things uphill, with a late surge from Consumer Staples to +0.2% the only genuine positive shunt after lunch.

The early morning brawl between morning’s fight between Rubix Resources (ASX:RB6) and BMG Resources (ASX:BMG) to see who could bag the biggest win was decided, with Rubix taking line honours on 41.7%.

That’s because Rubix has entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100% of the Ceiling Lithium Project in the James Bay Region of Quebec, Canada.

In second place, carbon fibre wheel manufacturer Carbon Revolution (ASX:CBR) jumped 36% on news that the company has established a new US$60 million debt program.

BMG finished third, closing out the session up 23.1% on news that its 20-hole RC drilling program at the Bullabulling Project in WA has bitten into some juicy pegmatite.

 

Thursday: Benchmark down 1.05%

The benchmark sagged 0.8% when the bell went Thursday morning, and then – in a sleepy orgy of merciless somnambulance – it piddled and puddled even lower to close at -1.05%.

A woeful effort all round, really. Except for InfoTech, which went gangbusters because of that Nvidia surge in the US, which caused local investors to get giddier than a busload of highschool girls over anything that even might have a computer chip in it. Or near it.

The tech sector outperformed the rest of the market by close to 3.5%, and the rest of the market mood continued deep into the Weird, and the day’s Small Caps winners list reflects just how strange things got.

At the top of the ladder was IncentiaPay (ASX:INP), up a marvellous, but extremely puzzling, 74.1% on no news.

Next best was revenue stage particle surface chemistry pioneers AnteoTech (ASX:ADO), which is up 35% because the company has a fancy new website, and changed the font on its logo.

In (technically) third place was Skin Elements (ASX:SKN), up 33.3% on volume so thin it could walk the catwalks of Paris and Milan.

In fourth place, but worth mentioning on the basis its volume was a bit more robust, was Halo Technologies (ASX:HAL), up 30.7% despite recently avoiding a potential issue at its AGM, after nearly 30% of the proxy votes were against the company’s remuneration report.

 

Friday: Benchmark up (no, really…) 0.24%

We were due for a win, and even though it’s a little one, it still works for me – which is, coincidentally, the title of my new sextape.

InfoTech (of course) won the day, up 1.36%, with Materials finally digging its gold-plated thumb out of its shiny pink manganese butthole, putting on 1.14% for the day.

In Small Caps, it was Blaze Minerals’ (ASX:BLZ) turn to pack on a few kilos, up 110% on news that it has entered into a Heads of Agreement with Exiro Minerals to acquire 100% of the North Spirit lithium project in Ontario, Canada.

North Spirit is made up of 1,698 claims over roughly 340km2, located 30km along strike to the southeast from Frontier Lithium’s world class PAK and Spark lithium project, which is why everyone’s all excited about it.

In second place was Lepidico, with the lithium minnow riding the new lithium boom 25% higher, on no news other than today is the one-month anniversary of the last quarterly it produced, which – I will admit – I have not read.

WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1) came in third,  back in the news again despite having no fresh news of its own. I can’t explain why, but it finished up 17.2%, continuing its climb towards $5.00 per share… and, for anyone keeping score, today’s rise puts WA1 up +2,511.11% over the past 12 months.

Worth mentioning is Ark Mines (ASX:AHK) up 16.7% today, in what looks a little bit like a delayed reaction to the company’s news on Monday that the drills have started spinning at Sandy Mitchell, the company’s fully-owned advanced Rare Earths project in North Queensland.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks from 22-26 May:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Code Company Price % Week Market Cap
BLZ Blaze Minerals Ltd 0.021 110% $3,675,082
1ST 1St Group Ltd 0.007 75% $9,918,938
TIG Tigers Realm Coal 0.008 60% $91,466,917
ADO Anteotech Ltd 0.05 52% $110,696,680
WSR Westar Resources 0.056 51% $10,811,407
CLE Cyclone Metals 0.0015 50% $13,633,872
HAL Halo Technologies 0.18 50% $22,014,186
LVE Love Group Global 0.08 45% $3,242,734
RB6 Rubixresources 0.25 43% $6,872,250
ROG Red Sky Energy. 0.005 43% $21,208,909
CYQ Cycliq Group Ltd 0.007 40% $2,085,100
NAE New Age Exploration 0.007 40% $10,051,292
VSR Voltaic Strategic 0.07 40% $24,753,669
SRJ SRJ Technologies 0.06 40% $5,688,963
ZEU Zeus Resources Ltd 0.032 39% $12,710,700
WA1 Wa1Resourcesltd 4.84 39% $157,291,047
K2F K2Fly Ltd 0.11 38% $19,284,628
SVY Stavely Minerals Ltd 0.165 38% $52,203,795
EBR EBR Systems 1.15 36% $283,607,185
PR1 Pureresourceslimited 0.265 36% $6,669,002
SW1 Swift Networks Group 0.019 36% $11,263,137
OZZ OZZ Resources 0.08 36% $6,115,949
AYM Australia United Min 0.004 33% $7,370,310
DC2 Dctwo 0.024 33% $3,137,186
FAU First Au Ltd 0.004 33% $5,081,976
GMN Gold Mountain Ltd 0.004 33% $5,909,798
MCT Metalicity Limited 0.002 33% $7,451,303
SKN Skin Elements Ltd 0.012 33% $5,593,619
SRY Story-I Limited 0.008 33% $3,011,239
FTL Firetail Resources 0.11 33% $8,470,000
DBO Diabloresources 0.049 32% $3,552,500
RNT Rent.Com.Au Limited 0.029 32% $15,923,281
KNG Kingsland Minerals 0.34 31% $10,060,749
INP Incentiapay Ltd 0.013 30% $15,180,764
NYM Narryermetalslimited 0.13 30% $4,115,813
ABC Adbri Limited 2.06 29% $1,272,623,732
NTM Nt Minerals Limited 0.009 29% $7,206,290
VN8 Vonex Limited. 0.027 29% $11,216,687
LPD Lepidico Ltd 0.0115 28% $76,377,726
NSM Northstaw 0.14 27% $16,817,780
TSK Task Group Holdings 0.52 25% $186,360,735
AVE Avecho Biotech Ltd 0.005 25% $10,810,796
BMG BMG Resources Ltd 0.015 25% $6,544,854
ENX Enegex Limited 0.025 25% $9,222,900
ESR Estrella Res Ltd 0.01 25% $14,835,719
GNM Great Northern 0.0025 25% $4,272,627
ICN Icon Energy Limited 0.005 25% $3,840,068
RML Resolution Minerals 0.005 25% $6,286,459
SIH Sihayo Gold Limited 0.0025 25% $12,204,256
C1X Cosmosexploration 0.485 24% $22,237,500
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So, how did the Small Caps winner’s list shake out for the week?

Today’s winner also took out top spot for gains this week – Blaze Minerals’ 110% gain today to its gain for the week to… 110%. Amazing.

AnteoTech’s rebranding seems to have paid off in spades, slotting it into second place with a 52% gain since this time last week.

And in third place, it’s Westar, missing its chance to place second by a single, slim percentage point, closing out the week up 51%.

Down the very bottom, however, was Payright (ASX:PYR), which phoned in a shocker and dropped 53% after announcing an application for voluntary delisting, share consolidation and a name change.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the least-best performing ASX small cap stocks from 15-19 May:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Code Company Price % Week Market Cap
PYR Payright Limited 0.007 -53% $6,166,196
GGX Gas2Grid Limited 0.001 -50% $4,077,102
KEY KEY Petroleum 0.001 -50% $1,967,928
GFN Gefen Int 0.005 -44% $340,501
CPH Creso Pharma Ltd 0.009 -44% $23,106,142
RPG Raptis Group Limited 0.02 -39% $1,269,727
KNM Kneomedia Limited 0.005 -38% $9,028,712
TYM Tymlez Group 0.005 -38% $4,368,781
8VI 8Vi Holdings Limited 0.4 -37% $17,376,383
RHY Rhythm Biosciences 0.375 -36% $85,719,110
ENT Enterprise Metals 0.0045 -36% $2,820,323
29M 29Metalslimited 0.6775 -35% $308,513,339
RBR RBR Group Ltd 0.002 -33% $3,236,809
VPR Volt Power Group 0.001 -33% $10,716,208
FFT Future First Tech 0.019 -32% $12,867,058
HVM Happy Valley 0.017 -32% $4,112,182
UNI Universal Store 3 -32% $240,903,343
OLL Openlearning 0.027 -31% $7,500,334
DSK Dusk Group 1.06 -30% $66,003,937
IS3 I Synergy Group Ltd 0.007 -30% $2,023,563
YOW Yowie Group 0.028 -30% $6,557,037
CSF Catalanoseafoodltd 0.05 -29% $2,022,240
GES Genesis Resources 0.005 -29% $3,914,206
SIS Simble Solutions 0.005 -29% $3,014,754
TNY Tinybeans Group Ltd 0.13 -28% $11,049,382
AAP Australian Agri Ltd 0.011 -27% $3,661,194
HIQ Hitiq Limited 0.022 -27% $5,940,395
REZ Resourc & En Grp Ltd 0.011 -27% $4,998,058
MRI Myrewardsinternation 0.017 -26% $3,979,461
MRQ Mrg Metals Limited 0.003 -25% $5,957,756
SCU Stemcell United Ltd 0.003 -25% $3,854,189
TD1 Tali Digital Limited 0.0015 -25% $6,590,311
WEL Winchester Energy 0.003 -25% $3,061,266
ECG Ecargo Hldg 0.025 -24% $15,381,250
AX1 Accent Group Ltd 1.835 -24% $1,052,436,220
TTT Titomic Limited 0.064 -24% $15,295,357
TYR Tyro Payments 1.155 -24% $603,543,841
14D 1414 Degrees Limited 0.053 -23% $11,918,157
FG1 Flynngold 0.061 -23% $6,275,286
PRX Prodigy Gold NL 0.007 -22% $12,257,755
TSI Top Shelf 0.265 -22% $22,304,926
DAF Discovery Alaska Ltd 0.032 -22% $7,495,510
SRT Strata Investment 0.16 -22% $27,107,772
OBM Ora Banda Mining Ltd 0.125 -22% $209,448,229
PNN Power Minerals Ltd 0.445 -21% $32,912,099
IMI Infinitymining 0.13 -21% $9,942,181
AND Ansarada Group Ltd 0.86 -21% $76,828,588
TEE Topendenergylimited 0.17 -21% $7,571,375
MCL Mighty Craft Ltd 0.095 -21% $35,956,443
BBX BBX Minerals Ltd 0.061 -21% $31,514,428
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ASX IPOs THIS WEEK

I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but that might be because I’m presently wishing I was lying down.

Enjoy your weekend, and I’ll see you all back here bright and early on Monday, to lose even more money next week. Huzzah!

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