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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to 19 July, 2024 – an important date for a couple of groovy reasons.

For starters, it was on this day in the Year 64 that Rome’s Circus Maximus caught fire, reducing it to the status of Circus Minimus and resulting in the grisly deaths of three clowns and a family of trapeze artists.

And on this day in 1324, the notion of travelling in style was given a new, almost unassailable high water mark, when ruler of the Mali Empire Mansa Musa arrived in Cairo on his way to Mecca.

It wasn’t so much Mansa Musa as it was his entourage that caught a few observers by surprise, as he was travelling to Mecca with a procession of 600,000 men, as well as 12,000 slaves and 80 camels, each of the dromedaries hauling 136kg of gold.

To save you from having to do the maths on that: 136 kegs = 4800 ounces, and if that gold was fetching today’s spot gold price in Aussie dollars, every one of those 80 camels was labouring under the weight of more than $17.5 million worth of very expensive metal.

The whole lot tallies up to $1.4bn, and it can only be assumed that he took that much gold with him to be 100% certain he could afford to get each of his family members something excellent from Duty Free.

Luckily for you, you won’t need to be hauling the GDP of Bulgaria (that’s an accurate joke – I looked it up and everything) through Egypt in order to get your hands on the info you need this morning, because – as always – I’ve worked super-hard to gather 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$2,474.50/oz (+0.25%)

Silver: US$30.72/oz (+1.13%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,519/t (-0.45%)

Copper (3mth): US$9,668/t (+0.37%)

Zinc: US$2,858/t (+0.39%)

Oil (WTI): US$81.72/bbl (+0.99%)

Oil (Brent): US$85.72/bbl (+0.80%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$108.94/t (-0.41%)

AUD/USD: 0.6740 (+0.15%)

Bitcoin: US$65,001.80 (+1.42%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Somebody left Bevis Yeo unsupervised near a functional laptop yesterday… and this is the magic that came pouring out. A cracking good read from one of the loveliest military tank enthusiasts I’ve ever spoken to on the phone on more than three non-consecutive occasions.

Stockhead’s senior #energy journalist Bevis Yeo presents this two-part special on which #gas projects could be goers in our Great Big Aussie Gas Digest. | #ASX #stocks https://t.co/NsfbMLEhsA

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) July 17, 2024

YESTERDAY’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	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
GCR	Golden Cross	0.002	100%	1,500,000	$1,097,256
M2R	Miramar	0.014	75%	77,588,728	$1,579,118
PKO	Peako Limited	0.007	75%	9,513,371	$2,108,339
ME1	Melodiol Glb Health	0.003	50%	3,849,502	$612,527
ENL	Enlitic Inc.	0.175	35%	12,654	$10,232,902
LNR	Lanthanein Resources	0.004	33%	14,943,377	$7,330,908
TMK	TMK Energy Limited	0.004	33%	5,210,012	$20,764,836
DSK	Dusk Group	0.770	31%	1,124,252	$36,738,040
DUN	Dundasminerals	0.027	23%	1,153,720	$1,861,817
PSL	Paterson Resources	0.022	22%	1,100,243	$8,208,682
LCY	Legacy Iron Ore	0.017	21%	4,654,562	$107,989,676
CHW	Chilwaminerals	0.540	21%	34,900	$20,414,375
NRX	Noronex Limited	0.015	20%	28,226,247	$6,108,639
EVR	Ev Resources Ltd	0.006	20%	1,672,353	$6,856,357
HLX	Helix Resources	0.003	20%	8,647,712	$8,160,484
LML	Lincoln Minerals	0.006	20%	152,000	$10,281,298
MCL	Mighty Craft Ltd	0.006	20%	204,288	$1,844,546
HTA	Hutchison	0.034	20%	15,301	$380,030,240
KLI	Killiresources	0.135	17%	2,978,743	$13,825,730
PAM	Pan Asia Metals	0.090	17%	57,023	$14,284,912
FGL	Frugl Group Limited	0.049	17%	53,931	$4,406,162
PUR	Pursuit Minerals	0.004	17%	2,218,954	$10,906,200
SRN	Surefire Rescs NL	0.007	17%	1,319,123	$11,917,847
CTQ	Careteq Limited	0.015	15%	53,333	$3,082,543
AME	Alto Metals Limited	0.038	15%	537,496	$23,810,265

Yesterday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Dusk Group (ASX:DSK) reported sales surged during the last five weeks of the fiscal year following a website relaunch and a bunch of strategic initiatives which appear to have paid off. 2H24 total sales were 5.8% lower on pcp, compared to a fall of 9.7% in 1H FY24.

The fragrance trader says sales run rate numbers continued to improve with unaudited sales growth of 0.4% vs the same time last year.

Meanwhile, Noronex (ASX:NRX) rose on news it entered into an Earn-in Agreement and Strategic Alliance with a wholly-owned subsidiary of South32 Ltd (South32) to accelerate copper exploration in Namibia.

The agreement means South32 has committed to fund A$15 million of exploration expenditure over five years at Noronex’s Humpback-Damara Project in Namibia, giving South32 the right to subscribe for a 60% interest in Noronex’s wholly owned subsidiary Noronex Exploration and Mining Company.

Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R), was up on news that it’s clocked up to 5.48% copper, 54.5% lead and 73.48g/t silver following the initial sampling program at its new Chain Pool project in the Gascoyne part of WA.

M2R executive chairman Allan Kelly reckons the Gascoyne region projects have the potential for all sorts of commodities but no-one’s had a really good look yet.

“For example, there has not been any modern and/or systematic exploration or drilling at the Joy Helen Prospect despite the presence of high-grade base metal mineralisation,” he said.

Macro Metals (ASX:M4M) which owns a portfolio of multiple iron ore projects situated within the well-established Pilbara and Midwest regions of WA says a field team at Goldsworthy East has completed a mapping and sampling program, 100km east of Port Hedland, while they were on site demarking the area to be covered by the heritage survey, which completed today.

Arizona Lithium (ASX:AZL) has announced that it has been conditionally approved for an investment incentive of up to $21.6m under the Saskatchewan government’s Oil & Gas Processing Investment Incentive Program. The funds are provided as transferable royalty credits, and can be claimed at a rate of 20% in the first calendar year of operations, 30% in the second calendar year, and 50% in the third calendar year against government royalties.

Easing off in the arvo, but still up was One Click Group (ASX:1CG) after the company hit the milestone of 150,000 users, with that figure representing a significant 57% up on the same time last year.

1CG says it has seen a major uptick in users through the start of this year’s tax season, with around 1,000 users per day signing up for its One Click Life fintech platform.

YESTERDAY’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:

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
ATH	Alterity Therap Ltd	0.005	-36%	93,602,994	$36,715,807
APC	Aust Potash Ltd	0.001	-33%	42,037	$6,030,284
BNL	Blue Star Helium Ltd	0.005	-29%	186,596	$13,614,197
DOU	Douugh Limited	0.003	-25%	26,975	$4,328,276
JAV	Javelin Minerals Ltd	0.002	-25%	52,281	$6,250,885
RIE	Riedel Resources Ltd	0.002	-25%	1,500,000	$4,447,671
YAR	Yari Minerals Ltd	0.003	-25%	1,010,757	$1,929,431
LGM	Legacy Minerals	0.250	-21%	555,698	$33,218,324
ZLD	Zelira Therapeutics	0.800	-20%	31,000	$11,347,155
BCT	Bluechiip Limited	0.004	-20%	1,214,898	$5,910,198
CTO	Citigold Corp Ltd	0.004	-20%	1	$15,000,000
MEL	Metgasco Ltd	0.004	-20%	15,000	$7,237,934
ROG	Red Sky Energy.	0.004	-20%	1,525,000	$27,111,136
REC	Rechargemetals	0.025	-19%	168,170	$4,330,389
NOV	Novatti Group Ltd	0.055	-19%	749,105	$24,191,030
AHK	Ark Mines Limited	0.200	-18%	82,721	$13,584,371
AOA	Ausmon Resorces	0.003	-17%	110	$3,176,998
AUK	Aumake Limited	0.003	-17%	750,000	$5,743,220
AVE	Avecho Biotech Ltd	0.003	-17%	113,990	$9,507,891
BPP	Babylon Pump & Power	0.005	-17%	1	$14,997,294
ID8	Identitii Limited	0.010	-17%	967,981	$7,214,190
PRX	Prodigy Gold NL	0.003	-17%	620,002	$6,353,323
PLG	Pearlgullironlimited	0.017	-15%	245,785	$4,090,836
AD1	AD1 Holdings Limited	0.006	-14%	709,000	$6,290,539

TRADING HALTS

Auking Mining (ASX:AKN) – pending an announcement regarding a proposed material acquisition of an exploration project and an associated capital raising.

AMA Group (ASX:AMA) – for the purposes of undertaking a proposed equity raising.