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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to July 25, 2024 – an important date in the history of why fandom is an ugly dress.

Bob Dylan, flanked by guitarist extraordinaire Mike Bloomfield and organist Al Kooper, was booed for ‘going electric’ after exiting the stage in a 15 minute set at the Newport Folk Festival in what New York Times critic Robert Polito called “the cataclysmic finish of the folk movement”.

Or so the legend goes, another story told by Kooper years later suggests the real reason the band departed was because, having only met a day earlier, they had no freaking clue what they were doing.

We prefer the idea the greatest songwriter of his generation was hounded into submission by a crowd of long-haired gatekeeping folkers destined to grow up, abandon their ideals and live the tough life of a non-executive director.

The joke’s on them. Dylan would go on to play Newport again 37 years later playing for two hours in a fake beard and wig. Then he won a Nobel Prize.

Luckily for you, you won’t have to get hit in the face by a flying harmonica to get your hands on the info you need this morning.

That’s because – as always – we’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$2,414.10/oz (+0.28%)

Silver: US$29.47 (+0.47%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,021/t (-1.00%)

Copper (3mth): US$9,166/t (-0.50%)

Zinc: US$2,688.50/t (-1.40%)

Oil (WTI): US$77.62 (+0.86%)

Oil (Brent): US$81.55 (+0.67%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$100.90/t (+0.31%)

AUD/USD: 0.6598(-0.25%)

Bitcoin: US$66,468.10 (0.80%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Not everyone is down on critical minerals right now, with stock pickers looking for opportunities in a down market.

.@SanlamAU’s Ben Faulkner sees value in the #ASX #CriticalMinerals space. https://t.co/tKhz6yOZxi

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) July 23, 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
HXL	Hexima	0.020	67%	23,463,630	$2,004,476
FIN	FIN Resources Ltd	0.009	50%	2,290,914	$3,895,612
AOA	Ausmon Resorces	0.003	50%	51,667	$2,117,999
TKL	Traka Resources	0.002	50%	500,000	$1,945,659
ODE	Odessa Minerals Ltd	0.004	40%	2,775,569	$2,608,206
IBG	Ironbark Zinc Ltd	0.004	33%	364,284	$5,077,718
MEG	Megado Minerals Ltd	0.012	33%	300,000	$2,290,100
AEV	Avenira Limited	0.009	29%	12,677,124	$16,443,238
FTL	Firetail Resources	0.077	28%	476,716	$12,138,829
PGD	Peregrine Gold	0.185	28%	35,737	$9,842,371
ATH	Alterity Therap Ltd	0.005	25%	16,397,842	$21,281,344
CAV	Carnavale Resources	0.005	25%	3,900,000	$13,694,207
ESR	Estrella Res Ltd	0.005	25%	2,148,204	$7,037,487
LPD	Lepidico Ltd	0.003	25%	2,167,000	$17,178,250
NRZ	Neurizer Ltd	0.005	25%	1,557,898	$7,609,723
WGN	Wagners Hld Company	0.900	23%	389,476	$136,961,625
ALC	Alcidion Group Ltd	0.067	22%	13,333,318	$73,836,027
BNL	Blue Star Helium Ltd	0.006	20%	796,082	$9,724,426
TYX	Tyranna Res Ltd	0.006	20%	190,014	$16,439,627
FBR	FBR Ltd	0.047	18%	10,380,798	$178,477,999
CLU	Cluey Ltd	0.035	17%	280,223	$6,048,407
GMN	Gold Mountain Ltd	0.004	17%	777,362	$9,533,230
SP8	Streamplay Studio	0.007	17%	1,966,517	$6,903,743
GLL	Galilee Energy Ltd	0.023	15%	899,823	$6,794,893
ALY	Alchemy Resource Ltd	0.008	14%	1,484,021	$8,246,534

Yesterday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Biotech Hexima (ASX:HXL) sucked up most of the glory yesterday arvo.

The biotech rose about 58% and plans to raise about $4 million to further its plans for world domina… actually to acquire an ai voice command company called RealThing Entertainment. No word yet on what role Russell Morris and Molly Meldrum have played here …

As per our Closing Bell doyen Christian Edwards, RealThing sounds pretty confusing/exciting!

“In the words of HXL:

RealThing is commercialising its Autonomous Intelligent Software Agent Platform (AiSAP) based on the Belief, Desire, Intention (BDI) model of human practical reasoning.

RealThing is building a new paradigm in user device interaction. Instead of asking questions, the user asks for an outcome communicating in natural language. Intelligent agents deliver that outcome in a changing and dynamic environment – it’s a personal assistant with human intelligence.

RealThing’s Autonomous Intelligent Agents take advantage of advancements in generative AI (such as chatGPT), combined with the logical reasoning capabilities of BDI agents that are connected to the real world to drive real actions.

– Hexima, ASX release”

Peak Rare Earths (ASX:PEK) was the big ressie winner, after US$2bn market-capped Chinese rare earths major Shenghe offered a cool $96m, signing a non-binding term sheet for a 50% interest in the company’s stake in the Ngualla project in Tanzania.

Peak previously held an 84% stake, with the rest held under the African nation’s mining laws by a free-carried Tanzanian Government.

Meanwhile, Galilee Energy (ASX:GLL) is still gaining handsomely on a June quarterly update.

Alcidion (ASX:ALC) was selected as the preferred EPR supplier by North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) for its new Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system.

“They provide hospital and community health care for approximately half a million people across two acute care hospitals, eight community-based hospitals, eight Integrated Care Communities (ICC) and a number of support staff locations over a large geographical footprint, working collaboratively with primary care networks, including 39 General Practices and an out of hours GP service.”

So that’s a lot of patient records which need digitisation.

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
AGY	Argosy Minerals Ltd	0.050	-38%	48,513,262	$117,929,596
OAR	OAR Resources Ltd	0.002	-25%	584,001	$6,444,200
NMR	Native Mineral Res	0.021	-25%	332,391	$5,875,814
SRJ	SRJ Technologies	0.075	-22%	399,893	$15,292,266
EMT	Emetals Limited	0.004	-20%	664,681	$4,250,000
POS	Poseidon Nick Ltd	0.004	-20%	218,116	$18,567,674
FTZ	Fertoz Ltd	0.030	-19%	25,902	$9,259,208
PLC	Premier1 Lithium Ltd	0.013	-19%	268,165	$2,793,186
CF1	Complii Fintech Ltd	0.023	-18%	515,632	$15,901,774
AON	Apollo Minerals Ltd	0.015	-17%	1,694,771	$12,534,172
AML	Aeon Metals Ltd.	0.005	-17%	400,000	$6,578,404
BCT	Bluechiip Limited	0.005	-17%	288,340	$7,092,237
BLU	Blue Energy Limited	0.010	-17%	90,614	$22,211,683
EVR	Ev Resources Ltd	0.005	-17%	1,098,747	$8,227,629
GCM	Green Critical Min	0.003	-17%	265,836	$4,159,755
HLX	Helix Resources	0.003	-17%	1,692,072	$9,792,581
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.003	-17%	350,555	$13,457,558
PRX	Prodigy Gold NL	0.003	-17%	4,246,744	$6,353,323
FGL	Frugl Group Limited	0.042	-16%	101,449	$5,245,431
KRR	King River Resources	0.011	-15%	161,678	$19,866,870
GSN	Great Southern	0.017	-15%	25,000	$16,911,674
ECT	Env Clean Tech Ltd.	0.003	-14%	505	$11,101,336
FHS	Freehill Mining Ltd.	0.006	-14%	755,527	$20,998,911
NAE	New Age Exploration	0.003	-14%	162,500	$6,278,646

TRADING HALTS

E79 Gold Mines (ASX:E79) – pending exploration results.

Avenira (ASX:AEV) – pending a response to a price and volume query.

Pure Resources (ASX:PR1) – material acquisition and capital raising.

Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI) – capital raising.

Arafura Rare Earths (ASX:ARU) – cap raising, but the terms have already been announced to the market. ARU will raise $20m in a placement and between $7-10m in a share purchase plan to provide a funding runway to take its Nolans rare earth project to FID next year.

VHM (ASX:VHM) – cap raising.

Aguia Resources (ASX:AGR) – cap raising, as well.