Rise and Shine: Everything you need to know before the ASX opens

It’s Thursday on Stockhead:

ASX small cap SILK Laser (a little beauty stock) says knockout sales show why the services and products its corner of the bourse provide are for more essential than discretionary.

That’ll be thanks to the “The Lipstick Effect” – the sales phenomenon so coined by former Estée Lauder chairman Leonard Lauder during the post-9/11 beauty boom.

Discover all the local stocks making the most of it.

But first, the day ahead.

TRADING HALTS

The following stocks went into trading halts yesterday and are expected out in the coming days:

Australian Rare Earths (ASX:AR3) – Pending announcement of a capital raise.

Calidus Resources (ASX:CAI) – Also pending announcement of a capital raise.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: $US2004.03 (+0.51%)

Silver: $US25.11 (+0.26%)

Nickel (3mth): $US24,025/t (+2.02%)

Copper (3mth): $US9002.50/t (+0.27%)

Oil (WTI): $US81.11 (-1.73%)

Oil (Brent): $US84.53 (-0.01%)

Iron 62pc Fe: $US120.00/t (0.00%)

AUD/USD: 0.6700 (-0.10%)

Bitcoin: $US31,086 (+2.51%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING YESTERDAY?

Lithium the dream.

Lithium Energy’s dream of building a significant maiden resource at its Solaroz brine project in Argentina has taken another step forward with drilling returning significant intersections of conductive brines.https://t.co/p5ZhfKZvbb #ad #ASX $LEL

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) April 19, 2023

And the Sultans of Stratigraphy…

Sultan has confirmed the prospectivity of its Kulin Hill nickel project with the final assays from a deep stratigraphic diamond hole, along the same mobile belt as Chalice Mining’s legendary Julimar discovery. https://t.co/LxPUKQsJCN #ad #ASX $SLZ

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) April 19, 2023

Keep up to date with Stockhead coverage or you’ll miss gold like that EVERY DAY. Follow our Twitter page.

For all you crypto lovers Stockhead’s Coinhead Twitter is the place to share your views, insights, tips and ideas.

Also, be sure to check in preopen each day for ‘Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch’, and 10.30am for our daily ‘10 at 10’ column — a live summary of winners & losers at the opening bell.

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
HHI	Health House Int Ltd	0.009	125%	4,162,029	$661,350.08
WOA	Wide Open Agriculture	0.32	52%	1,710,618	$27,149,172.33
OAU	Ora Gold Limited	0.003	50%	1,117,129	$7,873,850.26
OLL	Openlearning	0.022	47%	859,244	$4,018,036.13
CLE	Cyclone Metals	0.002	33%	10,787,528	$13,623,972.12
EX1	Exopharm Limited	0.013	30%	1,654,711	$1,572,115.33
W2V	Way2Vatltd	0.014	27%	449,242	$2,421,670.76
PIM	Pinnacle Minerals	0.13	24%	1,684,228	$2,685,375.00
RNX	Renegade Exploration	0.026	24%	11,643,067	$19,700,599.38
DCG	Decmil Group Limited	0.2	21%	680,174	$25,666,115.64
EML	EML Payments Ltd	0.8075	21%	8,463,810	$250,569,366.43
LSR	Lodestar Minerals	0.006	20%	2,833,333	$8,692,186.74
SI6	SI6 Metals Limited	0.006	20%	971,391	$7,476,972.96
SLZ	Sultan Resources Ltd	0.049	20%	143,994	$4,234,659.95
KOR	Korab Resources	0.022	19%	2,225,835	$6,790,425.00
TDO	3D Oil Limited	0.064	19%	905,414	$14,320,172.09
RTR	Rumble Res Limited	0.225	18%	5,090,362	$119,082,378.97
KNG	Kingsland Minerals	0.165	18%	304,040	$4,401,577.88
BUX	Buxton Resources Ltd	0.2	18%	2,120,933	$26,450,906.56
TZN	Terramin Australia	0.021	17%	210,041	$38,098,128.96
BPP	Babylon Pump & Power	0.007	17%	163,020	$14,746,628.06
CXU	Cauldron Energy Ltd	0.007	17%	571,429	$5,589,411.97
DCX	Discovex Res Ltd	0.0035	17%	1,000,000	$9,907,704.29
HLX	Helix Resources	0.007	17%	249,999	$13,938,875.06
HNR	Hannans Ltd	0.014	17%	4,658,950	$32,695,257.71

WA kaolin project developer Pinnacle Minerals (ASX:PIM), had a great day, after discovering rare earths at the Disruptor prospect.

Stockhead’s Reuben Adams has some special detail about PIM’s fortunate discovery.

Also on the winners list was Wide Open Agriculture (ASX:WOA) after a positive business update for Q3 FY23 including that it has has completed the majority of investment required to produce Buntine Protein at pilot scale in a variety of food applications at its R&D production facility in Kewdale, WA.

During the quarter WOA also secured $8 million in project-based funding from National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) for domestic oat milk production, and a $4 million working capital facility.

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the worst 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	0.001	-33%	2,749,000	$16,074,312
FFT	Future First Tech	0.014	-26%	100,000	$13,486,895
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.003	-25%	964,369	$31,139,531
SIT	Site Group Int Ltd	0.003	-25%	21,800,014	$5,204,981
SIO	Simonds Grp Ltd	0.105	-25%	80,851	$50,386,903
VML	Vital Metals Limited	0.0115	-23%	92,042,802	$79,592,246
OLI	Oliver'S Real Food	0.028	-20%	231,084	$15,425,617
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.002	-20%	3,305,929	$8,761,348
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.002	-20%	944,459	$13,364,013
PUA	Peak Minerals Ltd	0.004	-20%	200,000	$5,206,883
RBR	RBR Group Ltd	0.002	-20%	5,600,000	$3,996,012
IS3	I Synergy Group Ltd	0.013	-19%	854,406	$4,625,286
ALA	Arovella Therapeutic	0.066	-19%	16,283,608	$61,199,353
MGA	Metalsgrovemining	0.11	-19%	1,057,160	$4,860,068
NNG	Nexion Group	0.018	-18%	620,253	$3,350,773
MTM	Mt Monger Resources	0.125	-17%	2,178,522	$10,614,037
RMY	RMA Global	0.1	-17%	325,649	$66,953,116
LAW	Lawfinance Ltd	0.005	-17%	1,041,937	$383,206
PNX	PNX Metals Limited	0.0025	-17%	2,025,650	$16,141,874
NAG	Nagambie Resources	0.0405	-16%	303,334	$25,713,302
LIS	Lisenergy Limited	0.27	-14%	533,107	$52,262,969
APL	Associate Global	0.24	-14%	107,500	$13,557,849
AVW	Avira Resources Ltd	0.003	-14%	24,431,939	$7,468,265
GES	Genesis Resources	0.006	-14%	71,428	$5,479,889