CLOSING BELL: ASX down 0.16%, but two small caps made triple digit gains

Aussie markets ended the day 0.16% lower, because someone raised interest rates yesterday
Investors are running back into the safe haven arms of the goldies, while the tech sector shines
Two little Small Cappers made triple-digit gains today – read on to find out who they are

I am going to need to rush this a little, because deadline is looming fast and today’s not quite panned out the way I had hoped it would – both in terms of my obviously catastrophically poor time management skills, and the overall performance of the ASX as well.

The latter of those two things saw local markets look like they were really (honestly) trying, but the proof is in the pudding, and the pudding today is -0.16% flavoured… kinda halfway between banana and chocolate, which taste kind-of okay, but in reality is as confusing as being punched in the head by a smiling birthday clown.

Sector-wise it was a mixed bag, with just 4 sectors braving to stick their heads above the barricades to let Lance Corporal Gainz (his mother was Austrian) take a few pot shots at their noggins.

Consumer Discretionary came out on top on +0.8%, with InfoTech (+0.56%) and Health Care, which added 0.42% in spite of PEB’s spectacular fall from grace.

At the tail end of the ladder was Energy, down 0.72%, with Financials on hand to join in the wailing and screaming on -0.66% thanks to yesterday’s attempt to aggressively blast inflation away by the RBA board.

That RBA news yesterday drove investors back to safe haven gold, pushing the XGD All Ords Gold index up 0.5%, just behind the XTX All Tech index on +0.6% 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
ALV	Alvomin	0.405	179%	14,181,692	$7,834,339
SGC	Sacgasco Ltd	0.014	133%	43,635,949	$3,694,343
1ST	1St Group Ltd	0.006	50%	1,424,737	$5,667,965
CLE	Cyclone Metals	0.0015	50%	63,151	$10,264,505
MEB	Medibio Limited	0.0015	50%	250,024	$4,314,594
TD1	Tali Digital Limited	0.0015	50%	100,000	$3,295,156
MGA	Metalsgrovemining	0.145	45%	1,072,442	$3,625,050
DAL	Dalaroometalsltd	0.074	35%	2,470,246	$1,643,125
AHN	Athena Resources	0.004	33%	5,447,603	$3,211,403
AJQ	Armour Energy Ltd	0.004	33%	469,000	$14,764,026
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.002	33%	3,005,213	$5,604,129
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.002	33%	51,473	$9,221,169
PUA	Peak Minerals Ltd	0.004	33%	1,014,000	$3,124,130
ZLD	Zelira Therapeutics	2.11	30%	260,225	$18,382,391
IRX	Inhalerx Limited	0.05	25%	338,692	$7,590,678
BFC	Beston Global Ltd	0.01	25%	1,043,117	$15,976,375
EMU	EMU NL	0.0025	25%	703,667	$2,900,043
NZS	New Zealand Coastal	0.0025	25%	1,000,000	$3,308,020
FGL	Frugl Group Limited	0.011	22%	2,218,656	$8,604,558
SOV	Sovereign Cloud Hldg	0.061	22%	477,140	$8,485,017
ELT	Elementos Limited	0.17	21%	654,096	$27,263,612
YBR	Yellow Brick Road	0.063	21%	6,130	$16,971,835
RR1	Reach Resources Ltd	0.0145	21%	143,764,386	$33,060,608
HIQ	Hitiq Limited	0.024	20%	82,604	$4,950,329
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.003	20%	430,380	$19,462,207

Righto… I wasn’t paying attention properly this afternoon, so you can imagine my surprise when I went to scan the winner’s list, only to find that in the space between lunch and the closing bell, Alvo Minerals (ASX:ALV) dropped an announcement and promptly went to the moon.

Just after 1:00pm, Alvo revealed that it’s entered into a binding agreement for the purchase of the highly prospective Bluebush Rare Earth Element (“REE”) Project in Central Brazil, adjacent to Alvo’s existing Palmeiropolis exploration base.

It’s big news for the company, because early-stage exploration has already been carried out, with results that look like this:

6m @ 1,188ppm TREO (37% MREO) auger ERRO273AGR from 1m
1m @ 1,355ppm TREO (29% MREO) auger ERRO031AGR from 1m
5m @ 1,139ppm TREO (36% MREO) auger ERRO072AGR from 1m
13m @ 928ppm TREO (33% MREO) auger ERRO017AGR from 0m

It’s not only TREO rich, but it’s basically just sitting right there on the surface – which is why investors went super-bananas about it and in the space of 3 hours, Alvo’s trading price climbed 180%.

In second place was this morning’s market leader gas exploration minnow Sacgasco (ASX:SGC), which has blown the doors off the market with a 133.33% jump this morning on news that someone sent them a letter.

It’s not just any letter, though – it’s a Letter of Intent from PNOC Exploration Corporation for drilling of the Cadlao 4 well and an Extended Well Test (EWT) as the first stage of redevelopment of the Cadlao Oil Field.

This seems to have excited investors quite a bit, pushing Sacgasco – via its wholly-owned subsidiary, Nido Petroleum Philippines – past the super-small $8 million market cap marker, which is where it managed to stay all the way through to the end of the session.

And in third place is Metalsgrove Mining (ASX:MGA), up a solid 40% off the back of news that surface sampling has identified multiple high priority carbonatite and REE bearing drill targets for the upcoming maiden drill program at its rare earths and copper-gold Bruce prospect in the NT.

Metalsgrove is reporting a “high percentage of valuable magnetic and heavy rare earth elements including up to 1,800 ppm TREO, 38% HREO/TREO, 31% MREO/TREO, 23% NdPr/TREO, 23% Y2O3/TREO”, along with a “confirmed” and “significant” copper-gold & base metals anomaly.

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
PEB	Pacific Edge	0.1	-74%	2,858,179	$307,938,783
PYR	Payright Limited	0.003	-40%	1,187,324	$4,404,426
AVW	Avira Resources Ltd	0.002	-33%	11,881,804	$6,401,370
CCE	Carnegie Cln Energy	0.001	-33%	2,763,812	$23,463,861
SIH	Sihayo Gold Limited	0.0015	-25%	105,613	$12,204,256
FFF	Forbidden Foods	0.02	-23%	2,040,930	$3,457,494
GNM	Great Northern	0.002	-20%	250,000	$5,340,784
VAL	Valor Resources Ltd	0.004	-20%	223,140	$19,015,174
BVR	Bellavistaresources	0.15	-19%	152,737	$7,024,914
ADD	Adavale Resource Ltd	0.022	-19%	14,400,019	$14,027,661
E33	East 33 Limited.	0.018	-18%	177,587	$11,382,762
NZO	New Zealand Oil&Gas	0.32	-18%	3,736	$87,340,827
GTG	Genetic Technologies	0.0025	-17%	3,530,360	$34,624,974
NAE	New Age Exploration	0.005	-17%	12,304,537	$8,615,393
OAU	Ora Gold Limited	0.0025	-17%	4,507,571	$11,810,775
TSN	The Sust Nutri Grp	0.01	-17%	878,766	$1,689,155
CI1	Credit Intelligence	0.14	-15%	38,125	$13,777,361
LDX	Lumos Diagnostics	0.014	-15%	645,642	$4,956,931
MEG	Megado Minerals Ltd	0.052	-15%	1,981,915	$15,521,789
CBY	Canterbury Resources	0.03	-14%	505,347	$5,058,324
CTN	Catalina Resources	0.003	-14%	40,000	$4,334,704
CXU	Cauldron Energy Ltd	0.006	-14%	1,189,197	$6,520,981
HLX	Helix Resources	0.006	-14%	3,491,676	$16,262,021
IEC	Intra Energy Corp	0.006	-14%	3,818,680	$4,940,471
M4M	Macro Metals Limited	0.003	-14%	2,000,000	$6,954,772

LAST ORDERS

Righto – for those of you who have been eagerly awaiting the Next Exciting Chapter of Polynovo (ASX:PNV) since yesterday’s teaser in Trading Halts, it’s here… and it’s Big.

The company very happily announced this morning that it has recorded its first-ever month of sales totalling more than $7 million, after taking in around 7.2 million (unaudited) bucks during the month of May.

PNV says that record-making figure was driven by a strong showing in the US, where it had a record monthly sales (unaudited) of $5.2m, up 97.3% on the pcp.

The rest of the world also had record monthly sales (unaudited) of $1.9m, up 189.3% on the pcp, including encouragingly strong sales in Canada, Hong Kong, and India and a first-time order from the Middle East.

“While lumpy, the results demonstrate our ability to quickly gain traction in new markets and to grow existing markets,” said Polynovo CEO, Swami Raote.

And as for the rest of the episode, I can inform you that Andre did not wake up in time to stop his ladylove Marion’s wedding to Julio, the suave swivel-hipped lothario she met at the Latin Dance lessons her sister gifted her on the anniversary of Andre’s fateful fall from the roof of their holiday house in Noosa.

The reason he didn’t wake up is because Julio snuck into the hospital, after a long 12-hour stint on the cans for his buck’s night, which ended with the Dark and Mysterious groom-to-be embarking on an epic ‘buck’s night prank’… turning of Andre’s life support “for a laugh”.

Marion doesn’t know that yet, though – but you’ll need to wait for the next exciting chapter of this story until Polynovo: The Musical hits the stage in a theatre near you… which won’t happen until Elton John and Jimmy Barnes are done brawling over who writes the music, so it could be a while.

Anyway… the other big news from yesterday, which was Pacific Edge (ASX:PEB) losing access to the enormously lucrative American health market’s Medicare reimbursement scheme with its Cxbladder cancer screening product, has done some significant damage to the company’s trading price.

The moment it came out of yesterday’s trading halt, it went into freefall as investors bailed as fast as they could – and by the end of the day, PEB was down 73.7% to just $0.10 a pop.

TRADING HALTS

Infratil (ASX:IFT) – Capital raising.

ENRG Elements (ASX:EEL) – Capital raising.

Carly Holdings (ASX:CL8) – Capital raising.

Moab Minerals (ASX:MOM) – Halt called ahead of an announcement regarding an investment in an exploration and development company focused on lithium in Ghana, Africa.

Adslot (ASX:ADS) – Capital raising.

Cassius Mining (ASX:CMD) – Capital raising.

Tombador Iron (ASX:TI1) – Halt called ahead of an announcement to the market about a sales agreement.

Elementos (ASX:ELT) – ELT is prepping an announcement about an update of regulatory approvals relating to its Oropesa project in Spain.