Sponsored by Saxo

 

Good morning everyone, and welcome to 1 July, 2024 – an important day in the history of ancient Romans unintentionally lending their names to stuff in the future.

It was on this day in 350 that some bloke called Magnentius earned his title of usurper to the Roman throne, by killing a different usurper – who is the guy I want to talk about today.

The chap who was murdered on this day was called Nepotianus, and he had only been ruler of Rome for 28 days, after declaring himself the leader because he was vaguely related to previous rulers, on both sides of his family.

He leant his name to those wealthy arseholes who are only in positions of power and seniority because of who they’re related to.

In order to do so, he had to drive another rival for the throne out of the city. That man, Titianus, went on to lend his name to a genre of film that became hugely popular in the 1980s, thanks to movies like Porky’s, and Revenge of the Nerds.

Luckily for you, you won’t need to have a vaguely pornographic-sounding latin name in order to get your hands on the info you need today.

Eddy Sunarto has put together a must-read guide to How the Price to Book Value ratio could uncover undervalued stocks, and – as always – I’ve thrown together lots of fiddly little things below, so you don’t need to go ferreting all over the internet for your ASX info this morning.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,328.60 (-0.05%)

Silver: US$29.12 (+0.44%)

Nickel (3mth): US$17,291/t (+1.10%)

Copper (3mth): US$9,476/t (+0.58%)

Zinc: US$2,919/t (+1.50%)

Oil (WTI): US$81.47 (-0.43%)

Oil (Brent): US$86.40 (+0.08%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$106.51/t (0.00%)

AUD/USD: 0.6673 (+0.56%)

Bitcoin: US$61,445.50 (+0.92%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

ESG and the Aussie food industry – could a decent framework put an end to the billions we waste each year?

 

 

FRIDAY’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:

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

Friday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Right out front on Friday were the hardy oceangoing minnows at East 33 (ASX:E33) where the inclement rains impacted East 33’s harvest profile over autumn and winter, from circa 4.0m oysters and is now expected to be circa 3.4m oysters for FY24, however E33 says volumes are going to rebound strongly in FY25.

The good news is that harvesting areas are starting reopen after the rains and while the anticipated harvest volumes have been impacted, there has been “no downgrade to the stock on-hand.”

“Despite volumes being softer than previously anticipated, the farming business’ revenue remains broadly in-line with internal forecasts. This has been achieved through strong farm-gate oyster pricing as the quality and condition of East 33’s stock continues to improve. Further, the business has seen strong hatchery performance through H2 FY24, leading to revenue outcomes for the farming business exceeding internal expectations,” E33 said.

Pointerra (ASX:3DP) has moved into the top spot on Friday at lunchtime, rising after revealing a juicy US government contract. The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded the company a US$1.63 million contract for a program to model a range of electric grid resilience investment scenarios by electric utilities.

The company says it’ll all happen using Pointerra3D technology, which can apparently “assess the effects of different resilience investments” amidst projected climate changes. The goal, 3DP says, is to establish a scalable best practice framework applicable across various regions in North America.

Larvetto reports an Exploration Target has been delineated at the Hillgrove project and there could be potential mineralisation located directly below areas of the current Mineral Resources. The stock has jumped about 25% on that.

The Exploration Target of between approximately 670,000 and 1.08M oz AuEq, ranging between approximately 7.4 and 9.46 g/t AuEq for its Hillgrove mineral field in NSW. This is in addition to the existing significant Mineral Resource of 1.4M oz @ 6.1g/t AuEq2.

Delta Lithium (ASX:DLI) was higher on news of a major upgrade to its gold resource at Mt Ida, which has grown the Baldock Deposit up 82% to 4.8Mt @ 4.4g/t gold for 674,000 ounces.

American Rare Earths (ASX:ARR) has added almost 12% after reporting it’s the beneficiary of a $10.7m exploration grant from the State of Wyoming has been approved for American Rare Earths’ Cowboy State Mine REE project.

The Cowboy State Mine is reported to be one of the largest REE deposits on the planet, weighing in at 2.34 billion tonnes at 3196ppm TREO.

ARR says the funds will be used for further exploration work, a pilot processing plant, feasibility studies and economic assessments.

And Diatreme Resources (ASX:DRX) gave back some of its gains from earlier on Friday, after making headway while it has a takeover bid on the table for 100% ownership of Metallica Minerals (ASX:MLM) .

Diatreme – which already holds more than 63% of MLM – extended the deadline on its offer yesterday, but has made it very clear that the current offer of 1.3319 Diatreme shares for every Metallica share is as high as it’s willing to go.

And finally, The Calmer Co (ASX:CCO) had more good news for the market today, with the company revealing that the renounceable rights issue announced on 3 June has closed heavily oversubscribed and raised approximately $2 million (before costs), with the company sorting out a follow-on placement to accommodate investors who missed the initial round.

 

FRIDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

TRADING HALTS 

Astral Resources (ASX:AAR) – pending an application to court by the Company seeking orders in relation to the Company’s inadvertent failure to lodge a cleansing notice under section 708A(5)(e) of the Corporations Act 2001.

Kingsrose Mining (ASX:KRM) M) – pending the release of an announcement in relation to the receipt of an exploration permit at the Penikat Project.

Argent Biopharma (ASX:RGT) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raising.

Wellard (ASX:WLD) – pending an announcement regarding a potential asset sale.

Power Minerals (ASX:PNN) – ending an announcement in relation to an acquisition.