CLOSING BELL: The ASX goes down, the Goldies go up, because that’s the way of the world

The ASX 200 turned Hump Day into Slump Day, dropping 1.1%
Goldies shone bright under trying conditions to be up more than 2.6%
Greentech Metals went ham on the gains, adding 200% while the rest of the market wept

Things haven’t really improved for local markets since lunchtime, by which I mean they steadily got worse as the afternoon dragged on.

I’m not 100% sure whether it’s the overall performance on the ASX today, or the fact that my semi-professional meth enthusiast neighbour “Kevin” was roaming about rattling everyone’s doorknobs (not a euphemism) up and down the street into the very early hours of the morning, but I’m sporting a headache strong enough to fell a herd of cattle, so I’m going to keep this as brief as I can.

By 2:30 this afternoon, the benchmark was down as low as -1.5%, before staging a weak rally that saw things end up at -1.1%.

The sector landscape has barely changed since lunchtime, leaving Telcos the day’s only winners with a barely-there rise of just +0.12% above the water line.

Energy is the worst performer, down 2.32% after a 5.0% drop in crude prices overnight, and Financials took its -1.77% lead from a one-two combo of fresh banking sector woes in the US and the aftershocks from yesterday’s rate hike mugging by the RBA.

There are no prizes for guessing that the only real bright spot on the market today is the XGD All Ords Gold index, which is up 2.89% as investors go safe-haven hunting again – but even that’s down from its +3.3% position at lunch time.

Remarkably, there was a Large Capper doing well enough to make it into the winner’s list today. Unremarkably, it’s a gold stock: Resolute Mining (ASX:RSG) added 5.9% throughout the day after releasing its 2022 sustainability report.

Good thing I didn’t print it out – it’s 76-pages long and would have put a bit of a dent in the planet’s paper supply if I had.

Overseas, and with both mainland China and Japan’s markets closed for holidays of one sort or another, it was left to Hong Kong’s Hang Seng to fly the regional flag.

It did so by sinking 1.82%. Bravo.

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
GRE	Greentechmetals	0.2	186%	19,950,205	$2,260,300
GGX	Gas2Grid Limited	0.002	100%	73,016	$4,077,102
FGL	Frugl Group Limited	0.01	43%	1,974,203	$5,353,947
SIO	Simonds Grp Ltd	0.14	33%	35,000	$37,790,177
1CG	One Click Group Ltd	0.009	29%	581,739	$4,298,496
EEG	Empire Energy Ltd	0.18	29%	2,553,751	$108,236,961
LDX	Lumos Diagnostics	0.029	26%	1,553,296	$6,288,662
LRL	Labyrinth Resources	0.015	25%	688,109	$11,513,848
EMS	Eastern Metals	0.075	25%	193,353	$2,343,865
S66	Star Combo	0.125	25%	8,690	$13,508,298
HHI	Health House Int Ltd	0.005	25%	306,914	$712,898
MTH	Mithril Resources	0.0025	25%	10,689,630	$6,526,180
JPR	Jupiter Energy	0.026	24%	34,001	$25,826,853
RGL	Riversgold	0.022	22%	16,595,462	$17,018,419
CNQ	Clean Teq Water	0.315	21%	102,642	$15,004,677
ROO	Roots Sustainable	0.006	20%	689,169	$644,617
BGT	Bio-Gene Technology	0.125	19%	215,000	$18,588,498
S3N	Sensore Ltd	0.32	19%	8,000	$7,048,008
PGY	Pilot Energy Ltd	0.013	18%	13,917,446	$10,696,704
BAT	Battery Minerals Ltd	0.0035	17%	1,411,812	$10,070,827
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.0035	17%	3,619,154	$23,354,649
TIG	Tigers Realm Coal	0.007	17%	7,221,329	$78,400,214
XTC	Xantippe Res Ltd	0.0035	17%	664,891	$31,740,299
MME	Moneyme Limited	0.145	16%	1,361,675	$35,405,903
VR8	Vanadium Resources	0.0865	15%	7,867,361	$36,330,928

Pretty much from the get-go this morning, the day was only ever going to have one winner. In a market swamped with investors looking for somewhere positive to empty their pockets, Greentech Metals (ASX:GRE) was in the right place at the right time with some very positive news, so it’s ended the day up by around 200%.

The jump was due to assay results from its Austin prospect, part of the greater Whundo Cu-Zn project in WA, where the company has bored into a copper dominant mineralised horizon with significantly increased thickness and grades up to 5.4% Cu., with one set of numbers that looks like this:

19m @ 0.81% Cu and 0.15% Zn from 225m, including:
- 15m@ 1% Cu from 226m, including
- 6m @ 2% Cu from 226m, including
- 1m @ 5.4% Cu from 226m

If a super-fat copper hit wasn’t enough to get your whiskers wet, the assay results have also returned elevated gold and cobalt intercepts, including:

2m @ 1.35g/t Au from 178m
15m @ 0.04% Co from 226m, including 6m @ 0.073% Co from 226m

Greentech says the new assays “indicate a threefold thickening of the Austin mineralised zone which is consistent with Austin being a separate mineralising event to the overlying Whundo (East) resource”.

Next best was a post-lunch run from oil and natural gas producer Empire Energy (ASX:EEG), which went galloping 25% higher for no appreciable reason, and in spite of a 5% drop in crude overnight – in much the same way fellow gassy Pilot Energy (ASX:PGY) did this morning when it climbed 18.2% before lunch on no news.

In third place was Vanadium Resources (ASX:VR8), with a double-barrel set of announcements this morning, including news of a strategic placement and offtake MOU.

VR8 says it’s entered into an agreement with Matrix Resources (Zhejiang) Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Zhejiang Lygend Investment in relation to a strategic investment by Matrix of $5.91 million via a subscription for 53,763,800 shares for an interest of 9.99% in VR8.

Vanadium Resources has also granted Matrix exclusivity for a period of four months to negotiate and enter into an offtake for vanadium products arising from the Steelpoortdrift Vanadium Mine and Concentrator and the Tweefontein Vanadium Salt Roast Leach Plant.

That news comes on the heels of VR8 revealing that it’s set to increase its interest in the Steelpoortdrift project from 73.95% to 86.49%, with the 12.54% slice slated to set VR8 back 22,124,030 share options to acquire VR8 Shares equal to 4.37% of the company’s current issued share capital, and … *checks notes* … about 700 bucks.

I’m as baffled as you are about the $707 thing – but it’s definitely part of the proposed deal, which is subject to shareholder approval, as most things are these days.

Whatever the reason for it, it’s still been a good day for VR8, which is up 17.3% in very testing market conditions.

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	% Today	Volume	Market Cap
CCE	Carnegie Cln Energy	0.001	-50%	35,000	$31,285,147
AQX	Alice Queen Ltd	0.001	-33%	95,102,854	$3,795,431
VPR	Volt Power Group	0.001	-33%	6,716	$16,074,312
OPN	Oppenneg	0.041	-29%	557,945	$11,653,046
LMLND	Lincoln Minerals	0.008	-27%	2,633,694	$9,157,259
ADR	Adherium Ltd	0.003	-25%	5,541,478	$19,985,753
ARE	Argonaut Resources	0.0015	-25%	552,500	$12,723,743
LNU	Linius Tech Limited	0.003	-25%	46,896	$14,356,099
MRQ	Mrg Metals Limited	0.003	-25%	107,732	$7,943,675
OML	Ooh!Media Limited	1.23	-25%	31,187,013	$926,796,372
AHK	Ark Mines Limited	0.23	-23%	140,106	$10,383,031
LVT	Livetiles Limited	0.014	-22%	22,803,990	$18,848,983
GLV	Global Oil & Gas	0.011	-21%	128,964	$4,800,315
AMM	Armada Metals	0.035	-20%	200,000	$3,016,995
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.002	-20%	2,820,382	$8,761,348
ROG	Red Sky Energy.	0.004	-20%	7,476,946	$26,511,136
VAL	Valor Resources Ltd	0.004	-20%	1,000,000	$19,015,174
TSN	The Sust Nutri Grp	0.013	-19%	416,054	$2,252,206
BYH	Bryah Resources Ltd	0.019	-17%	576,337	$6,468,830
ADS	Adslot Ltd.	0.005	-17%	500,069	$13,226,090
SRI	Sipa Resources Ltd	0.02	-17%	378,492	$5,475,795
TMX	Terrain Minerals	0.005	-17%	100,000	$6,499,196
OXT	Orexploretechnologie	0.056	-16%	243,467	$6,945,501
AEE	Aura Energy	0.1925	-16%	814,823	$118,863,432
CBH	Coolabah Metals Limi	0.105	-16%	350,004	$4,725,000

LAST ORDERS

AI gurus Appen (ASX:APX) have announced a new collab with chipmaker Nvidia, which will see the duo join forces to allow enterprises to “access a comprehensive solution to create, implement and fully customise real-time AI capabilities”.

“Our collaboration with Nvidia allows enterprise clients in different industries to transform customer interactions, from traditional transactions to new AI-enabled experiences, using the full architecture stack – data, images an compute,” Appen CEO Armughan Ahmad said.

Appen and Nvidia have been collaborating since 2022 to develop speech AI and language models, with the latest iteration of the two companies’ work together set to provide a complete range of enterprise options.

In other tech news, the Board of iCandy Interactive (ASX:ICI) has appointed (Ken) Foong Ka King and Irene Wong Sook Lin as executive director and non-executive director (respectively) of the company.

Ken is the co-founder, and chief operating officer of Lemon Sky Studios, while Irene Wong was nominated as a representative director by Cheng-Fei Wong, co-founder and CEO of Lemon Sky Studios.

Currently, Ken oversees the creative direction of projects at Lemon Sky Studios, and is responsible for the overall strategic direction and day-to-day operations of Lemon Sky Studios.

With a Degree in Digital Animation from Vancouver Film School, iCandy says Ken brings more than 20 years of experience in leadership, corporate management, project management and business development.

Ms Wong is an advocate and solicitor in Malaysia and has over 15 years of experience in the legal industry, and brings extensive experience in representing listed companies, private companies, and individuals in various business-related matters to the company.

And the last one for this afternoon – Magnetic Resources (ASX:MAU) has announced that it has received binding commitments for approximately $3.24 million (before costs) via a placement of approximately 7.21 million new shares.

The shares have been set at an issue price of $0.45 a pop, together with a 1 for 3 free attaching option exercisable at $0.68 on or before 2 years from the date of issue.

The placement sets Magentic up nicely, well-funded to the tune of more than $5.5 million in cash, which is earmarked to go towards advancing studies on its existing gold projects.