• S&P/ASX 200 closes higher on volatile last day of FY23, with Emerging Companies index also rising
  • Blue Star Helium executes agreement with IACX Energy for helium recovery services at Voyager Project
  • Advanced Health Intelligence Ltd announces implementation of ADS ratio change for NASDAQ compliance

 

It’s been a volatile day on the ASX for the final trading day of FY23.   The day started with a -0.4% slump for the benchmark, but things got better over the course of the morning with the ASX 200 hitting +0.1% by the time Stockhead’s Gregor Stronach put out his Lunch Wrap.

But by mid-afternoon the market was trading fairly flat with the S&P ASX 200 up just 0.002%. As aggressive EOFY selling continued the benchmark dropped in the red by mid-afternoon only to hit the green in the last few minutes before closing bell to finish up 0.12%.

The S&P ASX Emerging Companies index (XEC) – a benchmark for Australia’s micro-cap companies – finished better up slightly better at 0.23%.

Gregor, as my grandmother would’ve said, is “not one to mince words”, and aptly described the bourse this afternoon:

“Investors are just running out the clock on the financial year this afternoon, like a badly-winded forward pack with the score locked at nil-all.

“It’s almost like everyone at the ASX is more focussed on frantically combing through Facebook Marketplace for $9,000 Taylor Swift tickets they missed out on earlier in the week.”

Six of the 11 sectors were in the green today. Leading the winners was the tech sector rising 0.83%, industrials up 0.46% and energy put on 0.37%.

First on the laggards board was consumer staples down 0.38%, healthcare not looking so healthy and dropping 0.31% followed by real estate which lost 0.21%.

The big news for the day is Link Administration Holdings (ASX:LNK)  dropping like a stone which Stockhead’s Rob Badnam has all the nitty gritty details on in Large Caps.

 

TODAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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Harvest Technology Group (ASX:HTG) led the ladder, up 36% after securing a juicy defence contract.

The company has received an initial order for its Nodestream technology for a Five Eye defence customer,in the total amount of approximately US$180,000 – to assist the un-named defence force with “ultra-low-bandwidth, high-quality secure” remote operations and communications tech. More on this in Last Orders, below.

Also on the winners list today is Blue Star Helium (ASX:BNL) after announcing in-line with its chosen commercialisation strategy at the high-grade Voyager development, it has executed an MSA with IACX Energy for helium recovery services via the delivery and operation of an initial helium recovery plant at Voyager.

BNL said it is responsible for providing a secure site, access to the facility and delivering the raw gas to the facility inlet while IACX supplies and operates the helium plant in exchange for a monthly payment.

According to BNL, the process to execute the MSA and associated documents has been thorough and included the appointment of a top tier reserves/resource auditor to evaluate the Voyager resource.

And finally, agricultural waste fibre technology company Papyrus (ASX:PPY) added 29%, a belated lift on Wednesday’s news that the company has executed a service agreement with BPE Investments and Union Pacific Equities, in a bid to help “advance its international business”.

 

TODAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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LAST ORDERS

Dual listed Advanced Health Intelligence (ASX:AHI) has said its planned ratio change of the company’s American Depositary Shares (ADSs) to its non-traded ordinary shares from the previous ratio of one ADS representing seven ordinary shares to the new ratio of one ADS representing 28 ordinary shares shall become effective on June 30, 2023.

On June 27, 2022, AHI announced that it received notification from NASDAQ regarding non-compliance with the requirement to maintain a minimum bid price of $1/share.

“As a result of the change in ADS ratio, the price of its ADS is expected to increase proportionally, although AHI can give no assurance that the ADS price after the change in ADS ratio will be equal to or greater than 4 times the ADS price before the change,” AHI said in an announcement.

AHI said trading of the ADSs on Nasdaq was prematurely halted in anticipation of the effectiveness of the ratio change.

“It is our understanding after conversations with Nasdaq that trading of the ADSs will resume on June 30, 2023,” the company said.

 

TRADING HALTS

RTG Mining (ASX:RTG) – Capital raise

PharmAust (ASX:PAA) –  Pharmacodynamic results from MND Phase 1/2 clinical trial

Theta Gold Mines (ASX:TGM) – Funding update

Manhattan Corp (ASX:MHC)Assay results at Chebogue Lithium Project in Canada

Jervois Mining (ASX:JRV)– Announcement on outcome of institutional component of accelerated entitlement offer

 

Disclosure: The author held shares in Link Administration Holdings at the time of writing this article. (Dammit.)