ASX Small Caps and Weekly IPO Wrap: Tech, Telcos and Money do well in a positive week overall

• The ASX 200 benchmark has finished the week higher by 0.59%
• InfoTech, Financials and Telcos were where its at market-wide
• Gold stocks, however, dwindled. I know… I couldn’t believe it, either

Well well well… it’s the end of the week, and one that feels like it the overall result should be better than it is, but for some reason isn’t.

It could be the horrendous head cold that I am slowly losing a fight with this afternoon, or the (sadly, 100% true) fact that the 11% failing grade I got for 1st Year Mathematics at university is indicative of my skill with numbers, but I’ve decided to just roll with the numbers that the ASX is giving me to work with.

So if it’s wrong, blame them. Not me.

Anyhoo… Over the course of the past week, the benchmark has managed to add 0.59% – 42.7 points, for those of you who don’t trust them fancy mathematical doo-dads and symbols – which seems low.

That’s most likely low because (and I’m putting this as nicely as I can…) the arse dropped out of gold. Sure, other things fell down this week, too… and, other stuff went up. But gold’s kinda where the brakes went on.

InfoTech was where the Good Times were being had this week – the sector cranked out a super-spiffy 2.22%, backed up by Financials on 1.54% and the Telcos on 1.29%.

There were a bunch of sectors being all middleweight and stuff, until we get to Industrials which ended basically flat, then Materials on -0.24% and Utilities on -0.46%.

And, because I know just how much you all love tediously long slabs of text, here’s a day-by-day catch up of which Small Cappers did well, why they did well (when I was able to figure that out), some terrific conjecture and what is definitely my front-runner for the best most-stupidest gag I’ve written all year, courtesy of Toys R Us.

Enjoy…

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

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

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

Monday: Up 0.1%

Westar Resources (ASX:WSR) garnered a ton of interest throughout the day which saw it up more than 120% at lunchtime, which eased after quick profit takers made their hay and the trading price eased steadily to close at $0.052, a 53% gain on the back of news that it has intersected multiple thick pegmatites from the maiden driltl program at the company’s Olga Rocks prospect.

Next best performer was WIA Gold (ASX:WIA), up 42% after the release of its maiden inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 1.3 million ounces at the Kokoseb Gold Project.

The MRE totals 41 million tonnes at 1.0 g/t Au, at a cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t Au within a US$1,800/oz pit shell, with the company boasting that the result is “one of the lowest resource discovery costs by industry standards, of US$2/oz of contained gold”.

And third among the gains worth of mentioning is the continued rise for Trek Metals (ASX:TKM) , which is still climbing on news that the company has inked an option for Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) to farm-in over Trek’s Jimblebar nickel-copper project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Trek closed out the day up 19%, leaving it at +37% for the past seven days.

Tuesday: Down 0.45%

Power Minerals (ASX:PNN) finished up 26.5% after it announced that it had trundled off to a swap meet, sold something off and then bought something new to bring home.

First off, Power has entered into a binding agreement with Fuyang Mingjin New Energy Development, to offload its non-core Santa Ines Copper-Gold Project in Salta Province, Argentina, as part of its strategy to shift focus towards becoming a major player in the South American lithium space.

To that end, Power also announced that it has acquired the 7,568 hectare Laguna Verde lithium-brine project plus 250,000+ hectares of prospective properties in Catamarca Province, north-west Argentina from TSX-V-listed Ultra Lithium.

Euro Manganese (ASX:EMN), managed to cling to second place on the ladder, up 20% for the day after releasing a company presentation for the month that didn’t have a lot in the way of new information – a big win from a PowerPoint prezzo that basically reminded the market that the company is still a thing.

In third place was Australian Strategic Materials (ASX:ASM) which had a 19.6% win, after forging a strategic partnership with US based rare earth magnet manufacturer Noveon Magnetics through an agreement for the sale of neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) alloy from the Korean Metals Plant.

Honourable mention goes to Toys’R’Us (ASX:TOY), which added 19.2% after Monday’s news that Group CEO Louis Mittoni was stepping down to spend more time doing far more pleasant things.

In the interim, Kevin Moore is set to combine the roles of Chief Executive Officer and Non-Exec Chair to become Chief Non-Exec Executive Office Chair (or something), and (I assume) will be reupholstered in fancy new leather for the next 3 months, or until doctors find a cure.

Wednesday: Down 0.46%

Medical diagnostics company Rhythm Biosciences (ASX:RHY), which has broken through the +100% mark on news that it has been granted a UK CA Mark for ColoSTAT, the company’s test kit product to detect bowel cancer.

The UK CA Mark means that the device fully conforms with the European Directives for IVD Medical Devices (98/79/EC) and the UKCA requirements, which is a crucial component for Rhythm’s strategic commercialisation and market entry plans.

Around lunchtime, RHY was up 120% and still climbing – but the price eased in the afternoon as those lucky enough to be on the wave chased out their chips, leaving it at a still-remarkable +88.6% for the day.

In second, as it was at lunchtime, is In second place on the ladder, it’s Noronex (ASX:NRX) – formerly Lustrum Minerals – after investors went bananas over a single, incomplete assay from a lone drillhole from Daheim, part of its Witvlei copper project in Namibia.

The company says that partial assay results from hole 23DHDD01 includes 14m @ 1.1% Cu from 109m (including 3m@ 2.0% Cu), and 7m @ 0.54% Cu from 44m across a broader intersection of 135m @ 0.33% Cu from 44m.

Assay results from the rest of the hole (below 278m), and from a second hole (23DHDD02) are coming soon.

That seemed to be enough information for local investors to get amped up like a touring metal band, piling on and adding a nice, round 50% to its trading price.

And in third place, business travel and expense management mob Serko (ASX:SKO) dropped a bombshell full-year results report on the market that included such gems as “Total income $48 million, up 154%”, “Average revenue per booking $9.56, up 65%” and “Completed room nights on Booking.com for Business 1.5 million, up 381%”.

It was a slow-burn for SKO over the course of the day, but it saw its trading price close 31.6% higher at $2.79 a pop.

And an honourable mention for Wildcat Resources (ASX:WC8), which jumped 27.5% after it revealed that it has 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.

Thursday: Up 0.49%

Terramin Australia (ASX:TZN) climbed 53% after announcing it is closer to developing one of the largest zinc and lead orebodies in the world after the Algerian mining regulator issued a mining permit for the 49%-owned Tala Hamza project.

The permit was  the final regulatory, financial and environmental hoop TZN had to jump though prior to development.

TZN said the permit allows for the processing of 2Mtpa of ore, instead of the 1.3Mtpa envisaged in the 2018 mining study “indicating that project returns will be enhanced over the anticipated 20+ year mine life”.

Friday: Up 0.6%

For a full wrap-up of today’s amazing results, head on over to where The Delightful Nadine McGrath has everything wrapped up in with a nice little bow in this afternoon’s edition of Closing Bell.

But, in a nutshell: On the winners list today is shipbuilder Austal (ASX:ASB), which has announced its US subsidiary Austral USA has been awarded a contract worth up to US$3.195 billion from the US Navy.

The contract includes options for detail design and construction of up to seven Auxiliary General Ocean Surveillance Ships T-AGOS 25 class T-AGOS ships, operated by United States Military Sealift Command (MSC), support the antisubmarine warfare (ASW) mission of the commanders of the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets by providing a platform capable of passive and active anti-submarine acoustic surveillance.

ASB CEO Paddy Gregg said the T-AGOS contract adds to Austral USA’s growing portfolio of steel shipbuilding programs and is a further demonstration of the US Government’s trust in its capabilities.

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:

ASX IPOs THIS WEEK

We end this week’s wrap with exclusively-obtained footage of all the IPO action that took place on the ASX this week.