Closing Bell: ASX climbs ahead of Australia’s Richest Morning Tea™ tomorrow at the RBA

ASX 200 benchmark closes 0.5% higher, thanks to Energy surge.
XTX All Technology index has the batteries back in, up 1.26% for the day.
Liontown farm-in huge news for E-I-E-I-Olympia Metals.

Local markets opened higher this morning (+0.6%), rose to +0.9% and then – true to form – ran out of puff as the day wore on, to close out the session at XXXXX*.

* That’s super-sophisticated journo-shorthand for “I’ll fill that in later, but I need to write this bit now or the whole story will be published so late, It’ll already be around tonight’s fish and chips.**

** That’s a reference to a bygone era, when news was printed on actual paper, and – once the guy at the fish’n’chip shop on the corner was done reading his copy, he’d recycle it as wrapping paper for your dinner – a business practice that was all but wiped out after ink levels in humans rose to such an extent that “an evening of sensual pleasure” often ended up with the gentleman’s junk impersonating a startled squid. #TheMoreYouKnow.

But I digress… The benchmark closed at 0.5%, which is as high as it’s been for some weeks. That’s all you really needed to know.

Sector-wise, the story didn’t change much over the course of the afternoon – Materials still had a shocker (-1.2%), while the Energy sector benefitted (+2.2%) from surging oil prices, thanks to a certain crude cartel breaking another firm commitment and slashing output, presumably because a certain someone needed 100 new Bentleys.

The OPEC+ move is something of a slap in the face for the US, according to RBC Capital Markets’ head of global commodity strategy Helima Croft, who says that it’s a clear indication that Saudi Arabia is prioritising their trade relationship with China.

FROM THE HEADLINES

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that McDonald’s corporate offices across the US are being temporarily closed for a few days, as the company gets set to fire a large number of staff as part of a huge restructuring.

The company is remaining tight-lipped over the precious number of staff that are facing the axe, but a company-wide message seen by the WSJ says: “During the week of April 3, we will communicate key decisions related to roles and staffing levels across the organisation.”

In local news, administrators called in to sort out the mess at Scott’s Group have revealed that the recently-collapsed refrigerated hauler was losing around $8 million a month (on average) for a lengthy period of time.

The ABC reports that the continued trading losses “meant Scott’s needed to be funded by debt, which came from a few different sources”, including:

$26 million in debtor finance provided by ScotPac
$64 million in secured debt provided by Gordon Brothers
$8 million in shareholder loans provided by Anchorage
$62 million from unsecured creditors

What a mess.

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Code	Company	Price	%	Volume	Market Cap
OLY	Olympio Metals Ltd	0.18	64%	2,911,528	$4,311,617
CLZ	Classic Min Ltd	0.0015	50%	30,875,260	$2,437,440
PNX	PNX Metals Limited	0.003	50%	535,243	$10,761,249
OD6	OD6 Metals	0.3025	48%	8,396,820	$11,278,177
ICN	Icon Energy Limited	0.008	33%	641,800	$4,608,082
PPK	PPK Group Limited	1.225	30%	260,721	$84,378,382
LER	Leaf Res Ltd	0.018	29%	2,138,035	$25,340,544
BML	Boab Metals Ltd	0.25	28%	1,285,374	$34,020,240
88E	88 Energy Ltd	0.0115	28%	142,262,186	$180,970,814
EOS	Electro Optic Systems	0.58	27%	4,240,247	$77,912,383
ADD	Adavale Resource Ltd	0.019	27%	2,115,749	$7,792,891
PRS	Prospech Limited	0.024	26%	425,314	$1,929,324
RDN	Raiden Resources Ltd	0.005	25%	24,144,438	$6,618,330
NWM	Norwest Minerals	0.036	24%	2,688,209	$7,173,765
AQS	Aquis Ent Ltd	0.18	24%	861,838	$5,179,281
AEV	Avenira Limited	0.017	21%	15,677,050	$17,433,781
LMG	Latrobe Magnesium	0.069	21%	3,964,259	$92,527,266
BTE	Botala Energy	0.13	18%	243,553	$5,864,833
DM1	Desert Metals	0.13	18%	17,000	$7,979,519
JRV	Jervois Global Ltd	0.078	18%	36,445,244	$137,231,224
GML	Gateway Mining	0.053	18%	805,867	$11,985,009
GHY	Gold Hydrogen	0.4	18%	32,431	$17,340,000
ADG	Adelong Gold Limited	0.0105	17%	710,751	$4,804,401
ADX	ADX Energy Ltd	0.007	17%	615,783	$21,207,748
NML	Navarre Minerals Ltd	0.028	17%	3,623,469	$36,069,100

The day’s Small Caps winner is Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY), which was up more than 77% on news that it’s inked a farm-in agreement with Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) that would see LTR getting its digits into OLY’s Mulline and Mulwarrie lithium projects in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

It’s since eased to a more reasonable +59% at the end of the session.

Under the deal, Liontown is set to complete 1,100 soil samples across the projects before progressing to Stage 1 of a two-stage earn-in.

All going to plan, Stage 1 will see Liontown end up with a 51% interest within one year, at which point Olympio can request to end the farm-in and to form a joint venture (JV) with Liontown funding 51% and Olympio 49%.

Alternatively, Olympio will have the option to continue the farm-in, seeing Liontown earn a further 39% within three years in Stage 2.

Meanwhile, OD6 Metals (ASX:OD6) has some great news back from the labs at ANSTO, where “very high metallurgical recoveries” have been achieved from samples taken from the company’s prospects, driving a 51% rise for the day.

The highest recoveries were achieved centrally within the main clay basins:

Prop Prospect – 44% to 96% recovery of MagREE (average 71%)
Centre Prospect – 54% to 78% recovery of MagREE (average 62%)
Scrum & Flanker Prospects – 64% and 76% recovery of MagREE respectively (one sample each).

OD6 says that an impressive leach response has been observed, suggesting reductions in acid strength are possible.

The company says ~80-90% of magnet rare earth oxides (MagREO) are located in the fine clay hosted size fraction (<75μm), and 30-50% reductions in material to be leached can be achieved by removing the coarse grained clays.

PPK Group (ASX:PPK) went flying this afternoon once people started realising that the company is a major shareholder in Li-S Energy Limited (ASX:LIS), which went into a trading halt earlier at 9:25am this morning ahead of revealing a batch of R&D news.

The sudden rush of interest in PPK saw it surge 29.6% before the ASX caught on and PPK was suspended, and then pushed into a trading halt around 2:00pm this afternoon, which will last until LIS has dropped its news.

Early winner Electro Optic Systems (ASX:EOS) revealed that its Defence Systems business has secured a contract with SpetsTechnoExport (“STE”), a Ukrainian state-owned foreign trade enterprise, to supply up to 100 EOS heavy RWS units to Ukraine, including spares and related services.

The contract, worth around $120 million over 2023-24, is conditional on demonstration testing over the coming weeks, and subject to other customary terms for military contracts.

EOS was trading 32% higher today on the news, but has eased to 26.3% at the end of the day.

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the least best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Code	Company	Price	%	Volume	Market Cap
GCR	Golden Cross	0.003	-40%	1,391,233	$5,486,281
AVE	Avecho Biotech Ltd	0.006	-33%	18,499,341	$16,540,824
CCE	Carnegie Cln Energy	0.001	-33%	511,333	$23,463,861
TMG	Trigg Minerals Ltd	0.017	-32%	4,043,631	$5,034,616
LAW	Lawfinance Ltd	0.006	-25%	102,674	$510,941
LNU	Linius Tech Limited	0.003	-25%	10,235,020	$12,918,985
COY	Coppermoly Limited	0.007	-22%	95,238	$19,745,612
EMP	Emperor Energy Ltd	0.018	-22%	1,230,000	$6,183,837
TFL	Tasfoods Ltd	0.028	-20%	19,386	$15,298,343
VRX	VRX Silica Ltd	0.1	-20%	757,066	$70,050,379
EMU	EMU NL	0.002	-20%	2,618,944	$3,625,053
FIJ	Fiji Kava Limited	0.004	-20%	4,662,533	$1,923,005
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.002	-20%	225,000	$8,761,348
PUA	Peak Minerals Ltd	0.004	-20%	226,600	$5,206,883
PYR	Payright Limited	0.016	-20%	10,099	$11,244,864
THR	Thor Energy PLC	0.004	-20%	2,144,946	$7,390,564
DC2	Dctwo	0.022	-19%	20,000	$3,045,327
ORN	Orion Minerals Ltd	0.014	-18%	207,851	$92,917,933
M24	Mamba Exploration	0.1	-17%	690,633	$7,318,001
RFX	Redflow Limited	0.23	-16%	622,451	$49,422,825
ETM	Energy Transition	0.038	-16%	1,169,859	$61,008,481
NXL	Nuix Limited	1.12	-15%	1,599,756	$420,686,384
8VI	8Vi Holdings Limited	0.5	-15%	12,243	$24,793,132
ADS	Adslot Ltd.	0.006	-14%	1,000,000	$15,430,439
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.003	-14%	9,493,669	$27,247,090

LAST ORDERS

Marquee Resources (ASX:MQR) has announced that it has kicked off legal proceedings against Belmont Resources in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, over what Marquee claims are delays in Belmont keeping up its end of an earn-in agreement.

MQR says that it entered the earn-in with Belmont under which Marquee was granted the right to acquire up to an 80% interest in the Kibby Basin Lithium Project upon the satisfaction of certain conditions.

However – despite Belmont acknowledging those conditions have been met – Marquee says that the 80% interest hasn’t been transferred and registered, which is obviously no beuno for the local lads. We’ll keep you posted if anything happens.

Meanwhile, intelliHR (ASX:IHR) has informed the market that, in the wake of an off-market takeover counter-bid from The Access Group (TAG) at 23.5 cents, Humanforce Holdings has upped its bid to an on-market 24 cents.

The Transaction Implementation Deed (TID) with TAG that intelliHR announced on 29 March 2023 contains a matching right procedure, which the IHR has decided to invoke.

“While the Independent Board Committee considers that the Humanforce 24 Cent Bid is a Superior Proposal as contemplated in the TID, until the Company receives a response from TAG pursuant to its matching right or the 5 business day matching right time period under the TID has elapsed without a response,” IHR says.

So that’s a big ol’ “Hurry up and wait” for now if you’re holding IHR – or a big ol’ “Hurry Up!” if you’re The Access Group.

If you’re both, please be aware that unsafe levels of cognitive dissonance can cause human craniums to explode.