• Benchmark set to finish close to flat as Energy stocks slump again
  • Goldies are surging again, with that sector up 1.3% for the day
  • Even the big banks are bracing for trouble with talk of a crisis getting louder by the day

 

After a moderately positive start to the day, the ASX is on track to finish flattish after Energy stocks copped another hiding, and the market braced for whatever round of Banking Bad News is headed our way later tonight.

Sector-wise, it’s a similar story to this morning – Utilities (+2.0%) and Real Estate (+1.6%) leading the gains for the day, while Energy stocks took yet another battering, down 2.0%.

Once again, with banking uncertainty hovering like storm clouds on the horizon, gold stocks were on the move again today, with the sector posting gains around 1.2%, even as gold prices eased slightly throughout the day.

Worth mentioning among the goldies, however, is last week’s market darling Besra Gold (BEZ), which put in a +300% climb for the week, but gave 25% back to the market today as punters took some profit.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei had a positive outing, adding around 0.3% – a much better performance than Chinese markets, where Shanghai dropped more than 1.0% and the Hang Seng took a 1.8% loss as well.

 

FROM THE HEADLINES

Banks are what’s on people’s minds at the moment, thanks in no small part to rumbles from Deutsche Bank over the past 72 hours which have given a few folks a severe case of the night sweats.

Deutsche Bank neatly disposed of around 8.5% of its not-inconsiderable value on Friday night local time, giving Australian investors the entire weekend to fret about which way to jump – but when the market opened this morning, it was looking a lot rosier than many expected, especially among the banks.

It didn’t last all day, though – possibly because of some alarmingly frank words from ANZ boss Shayne “Yup… with a Y” Elliott who took 15 minutes out of his morning to sit down with ANZ’s in-house word guy Andrew Cornell and frighten a few bricks into the pants of anyone watching the Deutsche Bank meltdown.

If you’ve got quarter of an hour to spare, this is well worth a watch:

 

 

If you don’t have 15 minutes to spend soiling your jocks this evening, the highlights from Elliott include:

“It’s a crisis for some, obviously, but is it a financial crisis? Who knows. Does it have the potential to be one? Yes it does have the potential to be one.”

and…

“It’s clearly not over …These things tend to roll through over a long period of time … history says it will take many many months, if not a year, for these things to roll through the economy.”

The overt subtext here is that things are shaping up to be pretty bloody lumpy over the next little while, and whatever’s going to happen on the overseas markets tonight is going to play a huge role in which way the Australian market decides to jump in the morning.

Meanwhile, in case you missed it this morning, that Latitude Financial (ASX:LFS) hack that “possibly involved 300,000 of its customers” is much, much worse than that.

Hackers have made off with 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand driver licence numbers, 3.2 million of which had been provided to the company within the past 10 years.

On top of that, some 53,000 passport numbers have been pinched as well.

Oh… and another  6.1 million records containing names, addresses and dates of birth dating back to at least 2005 were also taken.

It is nothing short of a complete and utter disaster, leaving millions of customers in danger of identity theft and fraud.

For what it’s worth, Latitude says it’ll cover the cost of having hacked identification documents replaced. Oh, and they’re really, really sorry.

Latitude is down 3.3% for the day, but – unbelievably – is still up 1.3% for the month.

If you’ve been affected by the hack, the company says you should contact IDCARE on 1800 595 160 using the referral code “LAT23” for advice about how to prevent fraud and identity theft.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

There’s been no substantial changes to the winners table since lunchtime, with Impedimed (ASX:IPD), soaring more than 120% on news that the US National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) released a new set of guidelines, which include the use of bioimpedance spectroscopy as an objective measurement tool to identify early signs of lymphoedema for the first time.

It’s big news for Impedimed as the company currently holds the only FDA-cleared BIS technology for the assessment of lymphoedema, which managing director and CEO of ImpediMed Richard Valencia says is a “major validating moment for the company”.

“The authors of the NCCN Guidelines are world leaders in global cancer care driven by sound clinical evidence and patients’ best interests. Their recommendations are highly influential for clinicians, patients, policymakers, and insurance companies,” he continued.

“We will take the information in these updated NCCN Guidelines and immediately integrate it into our reimbursement strategy to expand coverage of SOZO testing for lymphoedema. Our near-term focus remains leveraging our strong clinical evidence, market position, and now these guidelines to drive growth and adoption of our solution for breast cancer-related lymphoedema.”

Next on the ladder is Alloggio Group (ASX:ALO), which has announced  a Scheme Implementation Deed (SID) with Next Capital, which would see the latter acquire 100% of ALO shares at $0.30 a pop. ALO is still 44.7% higher at $0.275 per share.

Godolphin Resources (ASX:GRL) has added 33.8% on no fresh news, but continuing it’s climb since announcing solid copper finds at its Cyclops and Goodrich projects earlier this month, and Proteomics International Laboratories (ASX:PIQ) has stacked on a bit more than 15% after showing off its latest tech in the hunt for a treatment for endometriosis.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

LAST ORDERS

Some “all is well” news is in from Omega Oil and Gas (ASX:OMA), which is pleased to announce that SLB Land Rig 185 successfully commenced drilling the Canyon-2 well at 0430 hours on 19th March 2023.

The Canyon-2 well will be drilled to an approximate depth of 3600 metres, and is planned to be cased, prior to completion, fracture stimulation and flow testing later this year.

Omega will carry out mudlogging and open-hole wireline logs to better understand and characterise reservoir conditions at depth, to provide information that is key to finalising completion designs and to execute a fracture stimulation program.

Meanwhile, Race Oncology (ASX:RAC) got a lovely letter from the tax man, letting the company know that its been sent $1.48 million via the Research & Development (R&D) Tax Incentive from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for the financial year ended 30 June 2022 (FY22).

“The Australian government’s R&D tax incentive plays an important and unique role in helping Australian companies to grow and innovate,” says Race managing director and CEO, Mr Damian Clarke-Bruce, obviously delighted at the windfall.

“This incentive is especially important in helping biotech companies such as Race to solve significant unmet medical needs for our local and global community.

“We are grateful to receive this refund and look forward to utilising it further to double down on our clinical and preclinical programs for Zantrene in 2023 and beyond.”

And a quick newsflash from Nanollose (ASX:NC6) this afternoon, which has announced that the company has appointed Emily Spanoas a joint company secretary.

Ms Spano, the company says, is an experienced corporate professional, with significant knowledge of corporate law, capital markets and corporate governance, as well as extensive experience as a corporate lawyer and a consultant advising ASX listed companies on a variety of transactions including capital raisings, mergers and acquisitions, ASX listings and ASX compliance.

Ms Spano holds a Bachelor of Law and a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) from Murdoch University, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

 

TRADING HALTS

Globe Metals & Mining (ASX:GBE) – Signing of the Mining Development Agreement for the Company’s Kanyika Niobium Project.

Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN) – Mineral resource estimate update.

Kingsgate Consolidated (ASX:KCN) – Capital raising.

United Malt Group (ASX:UMG) – Potential change of control transaction.

Walkabout Resources (ASX:WKT) – Execution of a senior debt financing facility. Brutal, but they probably had it coming.

 

Read MoreCryptocurrencyGoldGold NewsGold StocksNickel

Featured Companies

You might be interested in