• The ASX 200 benchmark waddled its way to a regrettable 0.45% end to the day
  • Materials the only sector to close on a positive note, up 0.22%
  • Power Minerals wins the day with a canny move from copper-gold to lithium

 

There wasn’t a whole lot of moving the needle for the benchmark today, which kicked off proceedings with a 5-minute burst of optimism that fell at the first hurdle.

Throughout the day, the ASX 200 wandered between -0.2% and -0.41%, before sleepwalking its way to a 0.45% dip when the bell rang – not a disaster by any means, but still a bit disappointing.

By the end of the day, the usually-mercurial Materials sector was the only part of the market in positive territory overall, up by 0.22% thanks to a handful of high-flyers posting solid results.

The rest of the market had a pretty serious case of The Grumps, with Consumer Staples groaning its way to a 1.23% drop, and InfoTech (-0.96%), Health Care (-0.96%) and Real Estate (-0.95%) trotting along in-step behind.

Among the big losers today was recent market darling Westar Resources, which shed 25% of its recent run of good luck.

Up the top end of town, James Hardie (ASX:JHX) is up 8.53% today after reporting that things are looking up for the company. ​​Net sales from ordinary activities are up 4%, and profit from ordinary activities after tax attributable to shareholders is up a juicy 12%.

Life360 (ASX:360) is also on an upward journey, adding 12.1% thanks to revenue of $68.1 million, a YoY increase of 34%, with core Life360 subscription revenue of $46.2 million up 66% YoY – an astonishing feat for a company that is the social media equivalent of a law-enforcement ankle monitor.

 

TODAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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The Small Caps winner for the day is Power Minerals (ASX:PNN), 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 its 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 since lunchtime, 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 – so it’s a big win from a PowerPoint prezzo that basically reminded the market that the company is still a thing.

In third place, it’s Australian Strategic Materials (ASX:ASM) which has 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 has added 19.2% today after yesterday’s news that Group CEO Louis Mittoni was stepping down to spend more time doing far more pleasant things.

In the interim, Kevin Moore will 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 someone comes along who knows how to run a toy company.

 

TODAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the least best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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LAST ORDERS

Saunders International (ASX:SND) has announced a new contract that will see the company replacing five creaky old wooden bridges with much sturdier concrete ones across the Port Macquarie Hastings Council area.

The entire project will take around 12 months to complete, for which Saunders will pocket $11.22 million, while providing local residents and bewildered tourists with peace of mind when it rains and the region’s rivers do their best to murder everyone that dares go near them.

In a former life, I spent quite a bit of time tootling around that region in other people’s very expensive 4WDs, and some of those bridges were well past needing replacement 20-something years ago, so this is pretty exciting news for people who don’t like drowning.

Meanwhile, Bindi Metals (ASX:BIM) has announced that after pitching an attempt to acquire an interest in a series of Mining Claims making up the Canadian Schryburt Lake Project in northern Ontario, the terms of the deal have been agreeably changed to allow Bindi the nab the whole lot of it.

The deal will see Bindi handing over 900,000 fully paid ordinary shares up front, with a further 5.2 million in three performance-based tranches.

And, as is customary (apparently), it’s Corazon Mining’s (ASX:CZN) turn to offer the ASX a “nothing to see here” reply to a recent speeding ticket, which the ASX issued after a spike in volume that saw the company’s trading price jump suddenly by $0.008 to $0.024 yesterday.

Corazon says that there’s nothing in the wings at the moment that the market doesn’t know about, so Scooby and The Gang can get back in the Mystery Machine and go looking elsewhere for something spooky to figure out.

 

TRADING HALTS

Appen (ASX:APX) – There’s a pro rata accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer and institutional placement, but not much else is ‘appening. *badum-tish*.

Intra Energy Corporation (ASX:IEC) – Material transaction and capital raising.

Gefen International A.I. (ASX:GFN) – Application to be removed from the Official List of ASX.

Zeta Resources (ASX:ZER) – Clarifying announcement related to Zeta’s shareholding in Alliance Mining Commodities.

White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) – Material acquisition of exploration projects.

 

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