CLOSING BELL: No news is definitely good news among the Small Caps winners today

The benchmark kicked off well at +0.8% before deflating to finish on +0.4%
Utilities (+1.21%)win the day, while InfoTech (-1.20%) takes a body blow.
Lincoln Minerals (ASX:LML) tops the charts, up 36% for absolutely no reason at all.

Local markets have posted a positive start to the week, with the benchmark opening above expectations at +0.8% before sagging to finish at +0.4% for the day.

The day’s gains follow a strong finish to the week on Wall Street, which saw fears of further bank collapses somewhat mitigated by an on-the-table offer from JPMorganChase to buy First Republic Bank.

First Republic has been circling the drain for the past week or so after everyone took their money out, as this exclusively-obtained footage graphically shows.

Looking at the local market, it was a neck-and-neck race to the finish to see which market segment would finish the day at the top of the league ladder, but a sudden plunge for Health Care left Utilities on top with +1.26%, Energy in second on +1.05% and the health mob in third on +0.95%, down from +1.24 an hour out from the bell.

Languishing in a very clear last place, however, was InfoTech as the boffin-led end of the market fell 1.24% despite solid sector sentiment on Wall Street last week.

Among the Large Caps, Pointsbet (ASX:PBH) did best for the day, soaring 17.4% as investors reacted to news that the company has called off buyout talks with NewsCorp-backed Betr, turning instead to focus on negotiations with online bookmakers in North America about a potential deal.

Surprise of the day, however, was recent high-flyer Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI), which tore the covers off its Caldeira REE Project Maiden Mineral Resource, a JORC compliant 409Mt @ 2,626ppm TREO1 at a 1000ppm cut off.

It was enough to have executive chairman Andrew Tunks gushing “What a beautiful set of numbers, this is indeed a world class, Tier 1 Project”.

But, the market seems to have greeted that assessment with a full-throated “Yeah… nah”, leaving Meteoric down more than 10% for the day.

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
VPR	Volt Power Group	0.0015	50%	180,650	$10,716,208
LML	Lincoln Minerals	0.019	36%	7,142,532	$8,049,772
OPA	Optima Technology	0.023	35%	1,244,311	$4,224,089
AHN	Athena Resources	0.004	33%	150,614	$3,211,403
DDT	DataDot Technology	0.004	33%	501,105	$3,632,858
MRQ	Mrg Metals Limited	0.004	33%	200,101	$5,957,756
PRS	Prospech Limited	0.032	33%	3,764,470	$3,708,541
WA1	Wa1Resourcesltd	2.35	31%	4,437,817	$63,881,063
FFF	Forbidden Foods	0.019	27%	2,195,446	$1,994,708
AXN	Alliance Nickel Ltd	0.12	26%	9,022,127	$61,038,097
STP	Step One Limited	0.34	26%	691,545	$50,041,879
EMU	EMU NL	0.0025	25%	1,657,435	$2,900,043
GNM	Great Northern	0.0025	25%	1,000,000	$3,418,102
MOB	Mobilicom Ltd	0.01	25%	1,313,061	$10,613,414
MOM	Moab Minerals Ltd	0.01	25%	13,538,521	$5,455,708
LEL	Lithenergy	0.72	24%	1,782,055	$34,887,000
FMS	Flinders Mines Ltd	0.52	24%	21,332	$70,916,402
ONE	Oneview Healthcare	0.115	22%	1,127,830	$50,145,914
DNA	Donaco International	0.046	21%	1,503,250	$46,944,797
AGR	Aguia Res Ltd	0.047	21%	162,459	$16,920,316
CTO	Citigold Corp Ltd	0.006	20%	500,000	$14,368,295
HLX	Helix Resources	0.006	20%	142,690	$11,615,729
WSR	Westar Resources	0.031	19%	187,240	$2,399,508
TRU	Truscreen	0.025	19%	9,701	$8,749,482
PBH	Pointsbet Holdings	1.845	19%	4,457,263	$475,629,350

It’s been a bit of an odd day among Small Caps, as evidenced by the ladder-leading Lincoln Minerals (ASX:LML) cranking out a market-leading 35.7% gain on absolutely no news at all.

Lincoln’s been on a very wild ride since reinstatement to the market on 20 January 2023, following the company earning a ticket to ASX purgatory in 2021 because, as Stockhead’s former Most Eligible Bachelor Reuben Adams so succinctly put it, the company “had no cash and was doing f’all exploration”.

LML hit a peak of $0.047 the day it came back online, and has been up and down faster than a hurdler’s nards since then, falling to $0.014 before today’s unexpected – and dare I say it, unwarranted – bounce.

It’s worth noting that there’s still an unsolicited takeover offer from fellow South Australian project developer Quantum Graphite (ASX:QGL) floating around, which at last count had Lincoln valued at $0.016 a share – a valuation we all had a good giggle about in late January, but which is starting to look pretty tempting.

Similarly, Optima Technology (ASX:OPA) – formerly known as Bid Identity – spent the day climbing to +35.2% on no news, before being put into a trading halt around 2.30pm in advance of an announcement of a material services provision contract. #InnocentWhistling #NothingToSeeHere

And third of the worth-mentioning crowd today is WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1), which proved my predictions that it was going to win the day entirely wrong, but still managed a 30.9% hike after the company released the first assay results from the 2023 drilling program at the 100% owned West Arunta Project in Western Australia.

The results are from the first three of the Luni carbonatite drillholes, and they’re pretty bloody good, revealing “significant high-grade niobium mineralisation” including:

13m at 5.0% Nb2O5 within an overall interval of 31m at 3.5% Nb2O5
10m at 4.0% Nb2O5 within an overall interval from 39m of 24m at 2.1% Nb2O5
12m at 3.2% Nb2O5 within an overall interval from 47m of 21m at 2.2% Nb2O5

WA1 came pretty close to ending the day above the +1000% for the year mark, but its trading price eased late in the day as fast-moving investors took their winnings and went in search of something else to throw money at instead.

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
GGX	Gas2Grid Limited	0.001	-50%	587,000	$8,154,204
LVT	Livetiles Limited	0.018	-28%	7,275,321	$26,179,142
BAT	Battery Minerals Ltd	0.003	-25%	37,504	$13,427,769
CLE	Cyclone Metals	0.0015	-25%	14,818,926	$18,165,296
CDX	Cardiex Limited	0.28	-22%	578,694	$51,647,588
MIL	Millennium Grp Ltd	0.3	-21%	5,000	$17,922,038
EX1	Exopharm Limited	0.015	-21%	1,540,519	$4,511,656
MDX	Mindax Limited	0.155	-21%	2,524,526	$398,883,943
AOA	Ausmon Resorces	0.004	-20%	90,636	$4,846,447
CAV	Carnavale Resources	0.002	-20%	400,000	$6,833,879
DOU	Douugh Limited	0.008	-20%	2,420,349	$9,838,984
GLV	Global Oil & Gas	0.008	-20%	2,279,010	$3,428,797
ROO	Roots Sustainable	0.008	-20%	3,259,456	$866,017
SCU	Stemcell United Ltd	0.004	-20%	24,642,319	$6,423,649
VAL	Valor Resources Ltd	0.004	-20%	100,000	$19,015,174
AKO	Akora Resources	0.15	-19%	41,649	$13,355,189
CLU	Cluey Ltd	0.11	-19%	150,319	$27,217,832
MRI	Myrewardsinternation	0.022	-19%	1,000,000	$5,801,534
OLL	Openlearning	0.027	-18%	273,407	$8,839,679
KP2	Kore Potash PLC	0.014	-18%	200,000	$11,310,731
BCT	Bluechiip Limited	0.025	-17%	1,079,936	$17,956,914
LV1	Live Verdure Ltd	0.15	-17%	61,426	$15,256,630
IEC	Intra Energy Corp	0.005	-17%	800,788	$4,234,690
PNX	PNX Metals Limited	0.0025	-17%	2,520,164	$16,141,874
YPB	YPB Group Ltd	0.0025	-17%	1,024,000	$1,857,747

LAST ORDERS

Some rough news for beleaguered GO2 People (ASX:GO2) today, after it was announced that the company’s gone into voluntary administration, with Rob Brauer and Rob Kirman from McGrathNicol Restructuring called in to help figure out what’s what.

The GO2 People has been a little cryptic with its recent announcements, alluding to “an announcement in respect of a material debt owed by a customer” when it went into a trading halt on 26 April.

At the time, the company said it had “not concluded assessing its position in light of the material sum owed to it by the major customer, and what courses of action are available to it”.

That announcement never materialised, but by the looks of things the company is in a bit of a state as a result of whatever’s happening behind the scenes there.

That includes needing to reach a revised agreement in August last year to settle the funds it owed for the purchase of The Skill Hire Vendors, pushing the due date back from 01 June 2023 to 30 November 2023, resulting in an 8.0%pa interest payment capitalising back into the principal leaving a total of $3.51 million to be paid.

The only other info on how this is all going to play out is that the administrators have already entered into a loan facility agreement with IntoWork Australia, a leading national not for profit provider of employment, skills and education, and support services.

The loan facility ensures funds are available to the administrators to maintain trading operations across the GO2 Group, which they intend to continue operating on a ‘business as usual’ basis while they suss out whether it’s going to be possible to recapitalise the business, or if it’s better to sell up entirely.

In other news, Qube Logistics (ASX: QUB) has revealed that it has acquired a 50% stake in New Zealand’s Pinnacle Corporation and 100% of Kalari Proprietary Limited in Australia, part of its drive to increase its footprint geographically and diversify its operations.

Pinnacle operates both port-based and stand-alone facilities in nine locations throughout New Zealand under its wholly owned Specialised Group and MetroBox brands, while Kalari provides logistics to the Australian mining and resources industry, “specialising in on road and remote bulk haulage through a fleet of predominantly performance based standards (PBS) vehicles, materials handling and supply chain optimisation”.

The whole shebang will set Qube back about $145 million, “subject to a small number of post completion adjustments typical for transactions of this nature”, with the funds coming from the company’s existing undrawn debt facilities both in Australia and in New Zealand.