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Good morning everyone, and welcome to 05 August, 2024 – an important date in the history of Hollywood.

It was on this day in 1305 that Scottish resistance leader Sir William Wallace – whose real name was Uilliam Uallas, because he was born in an era before the advent of W – was captured on the outskirts of Glasgow, before being transported to England to be tried for high treason.

Wallace – who was born in France, of all places – decided to take on the might of the English crown and it’s associated armies, after his missus was murdered. She was known as Marion Braidfute of Lamington, because she worked in a cake shop and had massive feet.

Wallace’s story is long and very boring, unless you happen to like Mel Gibson movies, in which case it runs for 2 hours and 45 minutes, and is chock-full of glaring historical inaccuracies.

For starters, Gibson portrays Wallace as someone with long, flowing hair – when he quite famously didn’t, as this picture clearly shows.

 

asx today (SPA)
Sir William Wallace, who clearly had short hair and was not even remotely blue. Pic via Getty Images

 

And Gibson also made a very brave decision with his choice to portray Wallace as being of partial Smurf heritage, drawing criticism from a number of online communities for his wanton use of “blue face”, which is considered incredibly offensive by some members of the Smurf community.

Luckily for you, you won’t have to get cancelled for making a terrible movie in order to get your hands on good pre-market info today.

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$2442.80  (-0.12%)

Silver: US$28.56 (+0.22%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,273/t (-0.06%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,977/t (-0.24%)

Zinc: US$2,653/t (-1.99%)

Oil (WTI): US$73.52 (-3.66%)

Oil (Brent): US$76.82 (-3.41%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$104.00/t (+1.44%)

AUD/USD: 0.6509 (-0.25%)

Bitcoin: US$60,369.40 (-0.50%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Has it been a year already? Wow… that’s flown by. Josh Chiat has sharpened his pencil, readied press credentials and fortified his liver – he’s off to Diggers and Dealers, which kicks off in Kalgoorlie today.

 

 

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:

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Friday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Spacetalk (ASX:SPA) hit positive cash flow today – from operating activities of $0.85 million in Q4FY24 (Q4 FY23: negative -$1.5 million) and positive free cashflow of $0.37million (Q4 FY23: negative -$2.24 million).

The turnaround apparently reflects Spacetalk’s execution of its strategic plan resulting in effective cost management and revenue strategies, strengthening its financial position and positioning the company for future growth. Stock is spacewalking on Friday.

MONEYME (ASX:MME) grew Q4 loan originations by 25% over the previous quarter to $165m while increasing its loan book by 6% to $1.22bn. Net credit losses dropped from 4.8% in Q3 to 4.5% while gross revenue climbed 1% to $54m. Shares in the company were up 30% this AM.

Alto Metals (ASX:AME) spiked thanks to a tie-in/takeover with Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR), with the company now able to come out of a trading halt because a certain condition has been met – to whit, the results of Brightstar’s bookbuild in connection with a $24,000,000 capital raise ahead of the Alto purchase.

The deal would see Alto shareholders pocket 4 Brightstar shares per Alto share, and Brightstar gets its hands on Alto’s 100%-owned Sandstone Gold Project, comprising a significant land position in the East Murchison and current Mineral Resource of 1.05Moz Au at 1.5g/t.

Veris (ASX:VRS) was also up, largely due to a healthy trading update the company released a couple of days ago, which has been interpreted as “good” by investors, and sent the company climbing a smidgen over 14% today.

Earlier in the day, the leaders included Estrella Resources (ASX:ESR), after the company delivered an investor webinar on the heels of news that it has an update to exploration activities in the Lautém Municipality of Timor-Leste and the discovery of the a supergene manganese Sica Prospect, the latter of which is quite visually exciting as areas of manganese mineralisation lie exposed on the surface, with pXRF determinations in the field range between 59% – 26% Mn.

And Bastion Minerals (ASX:BMO) was up earlier on news that it has successfully completed a placement to raise $500,000 before costs through a one-tranche placement, with a 1 for 3 free attaching option along with an entitlement issue to raise up to A$1,500,000 before costs.

 

FRIDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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TRADING HALTS 

Resources and Energy Group (ASX:REZ) – pending an announcement to the market in connection with a capital raising.

Merchant House (ASX:MHI) – pending an announcement to the market in relation to the intended closure of the company’s subsidiary, American Merchant Inc, and the future intentions for the company.

Waratah Minerals (ASX:WTM) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a material capital raising.

Provaris Energy (ASX:PV1) –  pending an announcement on the potential execution of a material agreement in relation to the company’s hydrogen production and export projects and compressed hydrogen shipping activities in Europe.

St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) –  pending an announcement of a proposed acquisition and capital raising.

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