I may not have a job, but at least my mortgage payments are fractionally smaller each month. Pic via Getty Images.
CLOSING BELL: Local markets climbed 0.86% today, but those sods at the RBA want you out of a job
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- The ASX 200 climbed 0.86% today, after the RBA said it wants you all to get fired.
- Energy stocks climb 1.94% after I dared to turn my heater on this morning.
- Brightstar is thiiiis close to actual gold production, up 30% today as a result.
For a Tuesday that for some reason felt like a Thursday, local markets have cranked out a Saturday Night Special result despite most regional markets banking losses all around us.
Asian markets have been struggling all day – possibly because a rumoured stimmy round from China is now rumoured to have been delayed due to persistent rumours of its existence.
The Nikkei is down 0.25%, Shanghai is 0.2% lower and the Hang Seng has dropped 1.5% over the course of the day.
But Aussie markets have belted out gains like they’re Khe Sanh and every investor’s been on the cans since brekky – the benchmark’s up 0.86% at close, with the Energy sector leading the way with a very impressive 1.94% hike.
It’s been a good day for a number of Energy stocks, including big guys like Woodside (ASX:WDS) up 2.4%, Santos (ASX:STO) up 2.25% and a few little guys as well, including White Energy (ASX:WEC), up 20% because they had the foresight not to call themselves “White Power”.
Most of that is purely down to natural gas prices going completely bananas – they’re up about 17% in the past week – so all those energy supplier warnings that you’re about to get spit-roasted when the bills start rolling in might just be the beginning of the end of being warm every winter.
Around the rest of the sectors, at the time of writing, there isn’t a single one in the red – Real Estate is happily tucked in behind Energy near +1.9%, Materials has climbed 1.0% and the least-best performer Health Care is up and walking around again, after adding 0.15%.
The big economic headline of the day was the release of the minutes of the last RBA meeting, where lunch was a pompous, costly fund (and rate) raiser that set Australian borrowers back around 2.7 basis points-a-plate for the board to all attend.
I’m still not sure how the chef managed to stuff an entire roasted suckling pig into each of the lobsters served to the board.
The minutes of the meeting showed that the RBA board was within a whisker of keeping rates on hold, but decided at the last minute to send them up another 0.25% because the board is “concerned about recent increases in property prices”.
First of all, I can tell you right now that the board is only fractionally as concerned about property prices as the average Aussie would be, and secondly I’m now completely convinced that the cash rate went up just because the RBA board hates everyone.
While bemoaning the fact that the board has only one lever to pull to fight inflation and so other things need to change that are out of the board’s control, RBA deputy chair Michelle Bullock dropped an utterly tone-deaf clanger that will not go down well among most of the nation’s struggling population.
The RBA says it wants to see unemployment rise to 4.5% – 0.9% more Aussies out of work – by the end of next year for the good of the economy… which in essence means that the board is calling for more people to have no income to pay back their loans at all, so that the rest of us won’t have to pay quite as much interest.
No doubt a much higher percentage would be happy to see 100% of the RBA board in among that 0.9% on the dole queue… for the good of the economy, of course.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GMN | Gold Mountain Ltd | 0.006 | 50% | 42,601,725 | $7,879,730 |
| KEY | KEY Petroleum | 0.0015 | 50% | 2,000,000 | $1,967,928 |
| MCT | Metalicity Limited | 0.002 | 33% | 2,074,800 | $5,604,129 |
| BTR | Brightstar Resources | 0.013 | 30% | 10,591,773 | $15,740,152 |
| XAM | Xanadu Mines Ltd | 0.115 | 28% | 33,165,156 | $147,404,177 |
| OLY | Olympio Metals Ltd | 0.21 | 27% | 574,419 | $6,469,751 |
| KNM | Kneomedia Limited | 0.005 | 25% | 1,806,000 | $6,019,141 |
| VR1 | Vection Technologies | 0.049 | 23% | 5,008,323 | $45,063,559 |
| TMS | Tennant Minerals Ltd | 0.033 | 22% | 2,447,296 | $20,504,702 |
| OEQ | Orion Equities | 0.085 | 21% | 6,000 | $1,095,446 |
| SXL | Sthn Cross Media | 0.92 | 21% | 6,067,743 | $182,323,353 |
| PKD | Parkd Ltd | 0.023 | 21% | 469,737 | $1,934,548 |
| WEC | White Energy Company | 0.12 | 20% | 30,010 | $4,456,929 |
| TIG | Tigers Realm Coal | 0.006 | 20% | 437,991 | $65,333,512 |
| ID8 | Identitii Limited | 0.031 | 19% | 465,951 | $5,532,760 |
| AUA | Audeara | 0.05 | 19% | 275,000 | $6,018,600 |
| SCN | Scorpion Minerals | 0.09 | 18% | 611,188 | $26,273,671 |
| HAR | Harangaresources | 0.13 | 18% | 200,112 | $5,589,542 |
| ALM | Alma Metals Ltd | 0.013 | 18% | 758,246 | $12,144,009 |
| VIT | Vitura Health Ltd | 0.46 | 18% | 1,195,236 | $217,047,508 |
| BFC | Beston Global Ltd | 0.0105 | 17% | 5,757,800 | $17,973,422 |
| AJL | AJ Lucas Group | 0.014 | 17% | 1,089,287 | $16,508,756 |
| AJQ | Armour Energy Ltd | 0.0035 | 17% | 125,000 | $14,764,026 |
| CHK | Cohiba Min Ltd | 0.0035 | 17% | 21,448,207 | $6,339,733 |
| LNU | Linius Tech Limited | 0.0035 | 17% | 1,000,000 | $11,296,372 |
Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) has emerged as the Small Caps winner for the day, up 30% after announcing that its journey to becoming the nation’s newest gold producer is one large step closer to completion.
BTR says that mining personnel and equipment supplied by its partner BML Ventures will be mobilising in late July to its Menzies project in WA, marking the kick-off of production with an expected 30,000t of ore at a head grade of more than 6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from within the Selkirk open pit mine in August.
Xanadu Mining (ASX:XAM) is continuing its mysterious climb, landing in second place today after gaining up another 27.8% today in spite of a Please Explain from the ASX.
The company’s issued no material news since 07 June, but has told the ASX that it is in continuous receipt of assay results from its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia.
“We confirm there are no specific results requiring immediate release due to their material nature,” the company said.
“Xanadu will continue to disclose assay results on a regular basis and in logical groupings to explain how its projects are evolving and improving. Our next such announcement is expected to take place within 1-2 weeks.”
And in third place today, despite being thrown into a Trading Halt about 90 minutes before the end of the session, is Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY) up 27.3% for the day without a clear explanation, which triggered the ASX watchdogs into asking the company if it could explain what was happening.
OLY has asked for some time to prep a reply, and once that arrives I’ll let you know what they said.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IGN | Ignite Ltd | 0.042 | -42% | 1,600 | $6,539,499 |
| ZEU | Zeus Resources Ltd | 0.033 | -39% | 53,751,569 | $23,671,494 |
| CCE | Carnegie Cln Energy | 0.001 | -33% | 2,782,927 | $23,463,861 |
| MTH | Mithril Resources | 0.001 | -33% | 100,000 | $5,053,207 |
| PUA | Peak Minerals Ltd | 0.002 | -33% | 2,090,000 | $3,124,130 |
| WFL | Wellfully Limited | 0.004 | -33% | 17,030,234 | $2,957,665 |
| ELT | Elementos Limited | 0.12 | -29% | 1,498,796 | $33,105,814 |
| IS3 | I Synergy Group Ltd | 0.011 | -27% | 169,743 | $4,336,206 |
| ADS | Adslot Ltd. | 0.003 | -25% | 180,000 | $8,817,394 |
| SIH | Sihayo Gold Limited | 0.0015 | -25% | 1,340,000 | $12,204,256 |
| MFB | My Food Bag Grp Ltd | 0.15 | -23% | 10,514 | $47,275,317 |
| KRR | King River Resources | 0.007 | -22% | 5,384,514 | $13,981,725 |
| LKE | Lake Resources | 0.2975 | -22% | 71,898,396 | $540,528,989 |
| AIV | Activex Limited | 0.022 | -21% | 77,588 | $6,034,072 |
| 1CG | One Click Group Ltd | 0.008 | -20% | 5,376 | $6,140,709 |
| AYT | Austin Metals Ltd | 0.004 | -20% | 322,000 | $5,079,373 |
| MRD | Mount Ridley Mines | 0.002 | -20% | 2,862,712 | $19,462,207 |
| APS | Allup Silica Ltd | 0.05 | -19% | 745,499 | $2,385,580 |
| NOR | Norwood Systems Ltd. | 0.029 | -17% | 468,268 | $14,154,544 |
| FFF | Forbidden Foods | 0.015 | -17% | 1,605,797 | $2,641,150 |
| MDI | Middle Island Res | 0.025 | -17% | 1,039,788 | $3,672,547 |
| RCW | Rightcrowd | 0.015 | -17% | 1,726,297 | $4,737,453 |
| LVT | Livetiles Limited | 0.01 | -17% | 427,334 | $12,565,988 |
| NAE | New Age Exploration | 0.005 | -17% | 327,666 | $8,615,393 |
| RGS | Regeneus Ltd | 0.005 | -17% | 594,529 | $1,838,621 |
LAST ORDERS
Advanced Health Intelligence (ASX:AHI) has provided something of an answer to the mystery surrounding it’s out-of-nowhere 370% jump this time last week, which – for the sake of those who missed it – played out as follows:
AHI is dual-listed, and its US stocks went completely bananas on the night of Friday 09 June (our time) for no apparent reason – and, because of the lag between then and the ASX opening after the King’s Birthday weekend, it wasn’t until Tuesday 13 June that local shares also took off.
The ASX hit the brakes, AHI went into a trading halt and then dropped an after-hours announcement that its plans to raise up to $10,000,000 under a convertible note facility had only reached a total of $1,976,000 – but a separate negotiation with Orca Capital, an offshore institutional investor, to bring in $5,000,000 had been successfully completed.
AHI has now (today) responded to last week’s price query from the ASX, saying that there was a cap raise in the works, but that the company “did not commence its discussions with Evolution Capital until it was approached by Evolution in relation to a potential capital raising around at 10:00 am (AEST) on 10 June 2023”, ie Saturday morning of the King’s Birthday long weekend.
AHI has confirmed that the Orca Capital placement was done via Evolution, with the latter acting as sole book runner for the deal, and is essentially calling ‘no harm, no foul’ on the whole mystery as – in AHI’s words – it ”believes that confidentiality was always maintained in relation to these discussions and, in any event, the market was fully informed that AHI was seeking to raise capital”.
Meanwhile, clinical-stage biotech company Immutep (ASX:IMM) has announced that it has been granted a United States patent for its pre-clinical immunosuppressive product candidate drug IMP761.
The company says IMP761 is a “first-in-class agonist LAG-3 antibody designed to target the root cause of autoimmune diseases by directly silencing self-antigen-specific effector T cells”, which will probably make sense to a tiny fraction of the population – but to the rest of us, the real news is that the patent’s been signed off.
This new US patent follows the grant of the equivalent Japanese and European patents announced in July 2022 and October 2020, respectively, and is set to expire on 22 February 2037 (including 174 days of patent term adjustment).
Meanwhile, administrators David Clout and Scott Clout, of David Clout & Associates, have issued an “urgent” call for expressions of Interest for the sale and/or recapitalisation of Analytica (ASX:ALT), after the company fell in a heap earlier this month.
Analytica’s main focus has been its PeriCoach system, an electronic device for women to use to monitor pelvic floor exercises in a bid to combat Stress Urinary Incontinence, normally caused by trauma to the area during childbirth.
The device was designed to be inserted into where the babies came out of, and linked to a smartphone app that would then monitor how frequently the exercises were being performed, and any changes in pelvic floor muscle activity, with the data then uploaded to a web portal for doctors to access remotely.
How that product failed to take the market by storm is ‘anyone’s guess’ – but, after Analytica CEO Geoff Daly resigned about a month ago, and the company went into administration on 13 June this year.
So… if you reckon you could make it into something even remotely appealing, David Clout’s the man you wanna speak to.
TRADING HALT
Intelligent Monitoring Group (ASX:IMB) – Underwritten non-renounceable accelerated entitlement offer.
Battery Age Minerals (ASX:BM8) – Early exploration agreement related to the Falcon Lake project.
European Lithium (ASX:EUR) – Acquisition of Austrian lithium prospective tenements and assay results in respect to the tenements being acquired.
Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY) – Speeding ticket, with an explanation still to come.
