CLOSING BELL: Hump Day is Slump Day yet again, as the ASX drops another 0.46%

After a shaky start, the benchmark improved but still lost ground overall
InfoTech did well to add 1.04%, but MAterials, Financials and Staples all weighed
Standout winner was Rhythm Biosciences, up 88.6% on massive milestone news

Today was a real test of nerves for investors, with debt ceiling concerns and more bank sell-offs in the US giving local markets a pretty pissweak lead-in from Wall Street, which led to a steep drop at open for the ASX.

But the market stepped up to the plate to rally (a bit), driving the benchmark performance from a dismal -0.9% at 10:30am to a slightly-less dismal -0.46% at close.

InfoTech was the winner today, banking a 1.04% jump, with Utilities adding 0.34% while the Telcos phoned in their 0.1% addition to the total.

However, it wasn’t enough to offset a sharp 0.87% drop by Materials, and the 0.57% and 0.55% dips for Financials and Staples respectively.

Up the point end of the plane, Unnerving Family Surveillance app Life360 (ASX:360) has continued to climb, adding another 6.2% today as more and more meddling parents sign up to keep Big Brother-style tabs on their children, without which they would be obviously be fleeing the family compound to join the Foreign Legion or something.

TODAY’S 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
RHY	Rhythm Biosciences	0.695	99%	6,014,018	$76,008,656
CCE	Carnegie Cln Energy	0.0015	50%	83,698	$15,642,574
NRX	Noronex Limited	0.02	43%	16,480,415	$3,534,181
SKO	Serko	2.85	34%	382,575	$255,339,209
MRQ	Mrg Metals Limited	0.004	33%	329,999	$5,957,756
IG6	Internationalgraphit	0.28	27%	651,177	$19,357,384
WML	Woomera Mining Ltd	0.014	27%	8,355,218	$10,517,773
WC8	Wildcat Resources	0.05	25%	35,476,009	$26,480,909
CAV	Carnavale Resources	0.0025	25%	346,681	$5,467,103
CMD	Cassius Mining Ltd	0.02	25%	300,000	$6,535,886
ONE	Oneview Healthcare	0.23	24%	1,322,498	$98,691,426
VTX	Vertexmin	0.14	22%	326,291	$5,258,375
MLS	Metals Australia	0.042	20%	7,870,181	$21,246,267
TRE	Toubaniresourcesinc	0.18	20%	691,170	$7,275,377
CHK	Cohiba Min Ltd	0.006	20%	3,213,973	$9,066,221
CRB	Carbine Resources	0.012	20%	1,314,245	$3,152,755
TPW	Temple & Webster Ltd	4.5	19%	2,661,627	$464,749,874
HVM	Happy Valley	0.025	19%	350,558	$4,745,045
JCS	Jcurve Solutions	0.044	19%	120,361	$12,148,707
FFF	Forbidden Foods	0.032	19%	286,010	$3,590,475
DM1	Desert Metals	0.095	17%	175,160	$5,875,827
PMT	Patriotbatterymetals	1.855	17%	7,982,455	$482,717,576
ARO	Astro Resources NL	0.052	16%	685,201	$15,125,803
CY5	Cygnus Metals Ltd	0.23	15%	1,185,552	$41,984,842
QXR	Qx Resources Limited	0.039	15%	4,550,425	$30,493,319

The standout champion for today is 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 looked like this:

Total income $48 million, up 154%
Average revenue per booking $9.56, up 65%
Average revenue per completed room night €9.34, up 36%
Online bookings of 4.1 million, up 93%
Completed room nights on Booking.com for Business 1.5 million, up 381%
EBITDAF loss of $21.8 million, a 23% improvement
Net loss after tax of $30.5 million, a 15% improvement
Cash and short-term deposits $87.7 million
Underlying average monthly cash burn $2.7 million
FY24 guidance for total income of $63 million to $70 million

Those numbers are in flightless Kiwi Dollars, but any way you slice it, that’s a big bump in business and a very positive outlook – even taking into account that it’s the first proper post-Covid result for the company.

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% today 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.

There’s a story behind that… and all will be revealed on the other side of this chart full of companies that probably wished today had gone a bit better.

TODAY’S 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
GFN	Gefen Int	0.009	-53%	1,830,781	$1,293,902
SRJ	SRJ Technologies	0.035	-40%	248,504	$5,499,331
ALO	Alloggio Group	0.17	-37%	1,837,207	$31,959,969
CLE	Cyclone Metals	0.001	-33%	598	$13,633,872
KEY	KEY Petroleum	0.001	-33%	100,499	$2,951,892
AS2	Askarimetalslimited	0.3175	-22%	2,180,421	$27,290,258
GCX	GCX Metals Limited	0.023	-21%	501,998	$5,387,582
SMS	Starmineralslimited	0.055	-19%	49,500	$2,049,642
MDI	Middle Island Res	0.035	-19%	143,000	$5,263,984
AUH	Austchina Holdings	0.005	-17%	200,000	$12,467,302
DCX	Discovex Res Ltd	0.0025	-17%	10,000,000	$9,907,704
ICN	Icon Energy Limited	0.005	-17%	6,118,921	$4,608,082
VN8	Vonex Limited.	0.02	-17%	5,949,162	$8,683,887
YPB	YPB Group Ltd	0.0025	-17%	15,840,000	$1,857,747
FND	Findi Limited	0.4625	-16%	206,002	$20,052,237
EGN	Engenco Limited	0.34	-15%	3,000	$126,260,102
ATH	Alterity Therap Ltd	0.006	-14%	1,330,176	$17,079,283
FAU	First Au Ltd	0.003	-14%	13,703,334	$5,081,976
LER	Leaf Res Ltd	0.012	-14%	2,708,340	$28,868,544
RR1	Reach Resources Ltd	0.006	-14%	2,430,441	$19,285,354
MTM	MTM Critical Metals	0.1375	-14%	3,073,397	$14,137,209
HHR	Hartshead Resources	0.025	-14%	41,519,049	$81,451,782
GPR	Geopacific Resources	0.019	-14%	1,935,642	$18,066,204
NGS	NGS Ltd	0.013	-13%	708,856	$2,224,612
BEZ	Besragoldinc	0.27	-13%	6,195,979	$109,697,185

LAST ORDERS

So, the saga of the long-running Trading Halt for Wildcat Resources (ASX:WC8) has finally come to an end, with the company answering a price query from the ASX and releasing info about 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.

The saga kicked off more than a week ago, when WC8 got a speeding ticket from the ASX over a price and volume surge that saw a jump from its closing price of $0.034 on 08 May 2023 to a high of $0.04 on 09 May, with no substantial news from the company.

WC8 went into a halt on the 9th, which then turned into a voluntary suspension on the 11th, which was extended on Monday and Tuesday this week while the company worked hard to finalise talks to buy Tabba Tabba.

So that’s the story behind that.

Meanwhile, Metro Mining (ASX:MMI) is “pleased to announce” that the company board has locked in it final investment decision on the expansion route to 7.0 Million Wet Metric Tonnes per annum (MWMT/a) for its Bauxite Hills Mine, located 95kms north of Weipa on Western Cape York, North Queensland.

Part of the strategy is the decision by MMI to procure a large, existing Offshore Floating Terminal (rather than building their own, smaller, second floating crane barge, or FCB).

The offshore terminal option will “provide substantial upside including earlier mobilisation, lower cost risk, enhanced capacity upside, flexibility and greater operating window/weather resilience than an FCB due to its large size”, the company says.

And lastly, skincare company Wellfully (ASX:WFL) has announced that it’s been handed US$204,000 payment for 40,000 units of its Reduit Boost – a “smart device” that uses special diamagnetic something or others to push more active ingredients from skincare products into a person’s skin.

Diamagnetism is “a quantum mechanical effect that occurs in all materials”, and diamagnetic substances are exposed to a magnetic field, rather than the magnet attracting the substance, it pushes it away using a repulsive force.

The Boost gadget works from a database of known beauty products, and – according to literature – takes into account all manner of things such as skin type, the climate where you live, and a bunch of other stuff to figure out just how much magnetic force is needed to push the right quantity of beauty gunk the right depth into your skin.

It’s witchcraft, obviously, but Wellfully’s pocketed a nice chunk of change because of it.