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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to 15 February, 2024 – notable on the historical calendar as the date on which, in the year 399BC that the city of Athens sentenced Socrates to death, on charges of impiety and for corrupting the minds of the youth of the city.

Without wanting to open a massive can of worms, there are several schools of thought as to whether the great philosopher was executed because he made the oligarchs who ruled Athens at the time mad, or whether he was a raging pederast – as was the way of the Ancient Greeks, and a few modern ones as well.

But either way, the fact is that he caused enough of a stink to get himself murdered by the city he loved for corrupting youthful minds, and possibly backsides, before he went.

In the hope that today’s events on the ASX are somewhat less of a pain in the arse than a lesson from Socrates, the Stockhead team has been hard at work to bring you the latest in what’s happening in and around the market.

Josh Chiat’s been lurking at the RIU Explorers conference to dig up the latest in uranium gossip, and he even had time to corner Alto Capital investment manager Tony Locantro for his take on what stocks are hot right now.

Plus the always-wise Eddy Sunarto explains what a Margin of Safety is for investors and why you need to be using one, and as always there’s words and numbers down below to keep you busy while you wait for your morning coffee to work its way through the plumbing, before you leave for the office.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,992.26 (+0.01%)

Silver: US$22.37 (+1.35%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,040/t (+0.75%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,260/t (+0.30%)

Oil (WTI): US$76.63 (-1.60%)

Oil (Brent): US$81.41 (-1.64%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$129.10/t (+0.06%)

AUD/USD: 0.6494 (+0.57%)

Bitcoin: US$51,770 (+4.5%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

With a tagline like “lessons on the ASX journey from dirt bag to 10 bag”, there’s nothing not to love about this wonderful tale from Christian Edwards.

“There should be great solace in knowing that many eventual 10-baggers are likely sitting right under our noses.” https://t.co/mxqMJbyZIv

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) February 13, 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	Company	Price	%	Volume	MARKET CAP
FAU	First Au Ltd	0.004	60%	18,525,382	$4,154,983
NVQ	Noviqtech Limited	0.003	50%	807,186	$2,618,891
PRX	Prodigy Gold NL	0.006	50%	14,405,487	$7,004,431
NRZ	Neurizer Ltd	0.007	40%	7,336,599	$7,069,554
TTI	Traffic Technologies	0.009	29%	385,049	$5,303,691
BOC	Bougainville Copper	0.535	26%	144,098	$170,451,563
CTN	Catalina Resources	0.005	25%	1,450,000	$4,953,948
OPN	Oppenneg	0.01	25%	2,332,266	$9,033,437
VML	Vital Metals Limited	0.005	25%	427,949	$23,580,268
DAF	Discovery Alaska Ltd	0.023	21%	5,500	$4,450,459
AHN	Athena Resources	0.003	20%	3,668,000	$2,676,169
AQX	Alice Queen Ltd	0.006	20%	15,402,461	$3,454,921
CHK	Cohiba Min Ltd	0.003	20%	1,000,000	$6,325,575
TIG	Tigers Realm Coal	0.006	20%	5,868,300	$65,333,512
KIN	KIN Min NL	0.074	19%	5,406,667	$73,045,334
BNL	Blue Star Helium Ltd	0.013	18%	27,266,702	$21,364,918
ODE	Odessa Minerals Ltd	0.007	17%	1,166,666	$6,259,695
RGS	Regeneus Ltd	0.007	17%	20,000	$1,838,621
NKL	Nickelxltd	0.044	16%	1,054,906	$3,336,976
PCL	Pancontinental Energ	0.022	16%	12,988,061	$153,281,983
SYA	Sayona Mining Ltd	0.044	16%	165,710,082	$391,145,249
ATS	Australis Oil & Gas	0.015	15%	1,937,469	$16,599,252
AUZ	Australian Mines Ltd	0.015	15%	42,202,918	$13,854,798
ICR	Intelicare Holdings	0.015	15%	400,601	$3,052,718
SOV	Sovereign Cloud Hldg	0.053	15%	198,096	$15,612,431

Yesterday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Blue Star Helium (ASX:BNL) got off to a good start early in the day, after the company revealed results from initial testing and evaluation at Bolling #4 SESW well, which resulted in gas to surface flow of >4% helium under vacuum with flow up to 268.4 mscf/d. The company has engineers evaluating well production potential.

Rox Resources (ASX:RXL) had good news, revealing that it has recently completed geophysical Gradient Array Induced Polarisation (GAIP) surveys at its Mt Fisher and Mt Eureka gold projects in Western Australia, identifying numerous high-priority, walk-up drill targets in the process.

The new targets add to a previous result from its 100% owned Mt Fisher project, which the company reported as 9m @ 34.34g/t Au, with work continuing on both that project and the 51% (with an avenue for earn-in up to 75%) owned Mt Eureka site.

Bastion Minerals (ASX:BMO) was also making news on Wednesday morning, announcing that 53 samples from old mine workings have confirmed that the strategic 115km2 Gyttorp land holding in Southern Sweden is highly prospective for high-grade REE, with laboratory results to 6.8% (68,078 ppm) total REE + yttrium and elevated results throughout the property.

The company says that other high-grade Total REE+Y samples that exceeded 1.0% (10,000 ppm) include: 3.09%, 2.85%, 2.46%, 2.09%, 1.52%, 1.49%, 1.45%, 1.29% and 1.1%.

Hammer Metals (ASX:HMX) announced that its JV partner, Sumitomo Metal Mining Oceania, has reached a $6 million (60% interest) earn-in milestone and has elected to continue to fund the JV, with drilling of the Shadow South IOCG target scheduled to commence in early March.

As such, Hammer has elected to dilute its position in the MIEJV in accordance with the JV agreement, noting that it can elect to contribute to the Joint Venture in the future to maintain its interest at that point in time.

Kin Mining (ASX:KIN) surged more than 19% on no news, earning itself a speeding ticket from the ASX, while Sovereign Cloud Holdings (ASX:SOV) jumped around 24% in after-lunch trade, also without much in the way of news for the market.

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	Company	Price	%	Volume	MARKET CAP
SSR	SSR Mining Inc.	7.16	-52%	357,790	$82,519,141
GTE	Great Western Exp.	0.0255	-36%	1,825,786	$13,920,425
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.002	-33%	33,735,059	$18,592,338
EDE	Eden Inv Ltd	0.0015	-25%	5,162,997	$7,356,542
IS3	I Synergy Group Ltd	0.006	-25%	1,497,052	$2,432,643
MRQ	Mrg Metals Limited	0.0015	-25%	1,840,000	$4,942,682
TOT	360 Capital REIT	0.41	-25%	1,599,920	$79,696,680
BNZ	Benz Mining	0.135	-21%	171,982	$18,922,016
ROG	Red Sky Energy	0.004	-20%	17,893,010	$27,111,136
RR1	Reach Resources Ltd	0.002	-20%	301,777	$8,025,743
EYE	Nova EYE Medical Ltd	0.215	-20%	1,075,381	$51,047,435
AUA	Audeara	0.03	-19%	56,611	$5,350,486
REC	Rechargemetals	0.065	-18%	65,529	$8,796,806
HVY	Heavy Minerals	0.081	-17%	108,434	$5,647,109
ABE	Ausbondexchange	0.024	-17%	248,498	$3,267,375
BEO	Beonic Ltd	0.025	-17%	265,306	$12,734,848
EMT	Emetals Limited	0.005	-17%	111,000	$5,100,000
NMR	Native Mineral Res	0.021	-16%	400,040	$5,243,763
FXG	Felix Gold Limited	0.033	-15%	215,392	$8,081,389
SHO	Sportshero Ltd	0.011	-15%	1,092,963	$8,031,827
ASR	Asra Minerals Ltd	0.006	-14%	1,854,545	$11,455,470
ICG	Inca Minerals Ltd	0.006	-14%	664,794	$4,114,784
LPD	Lepidico Ltd	0.006	-14%	10,000	$53,468,156
YOJ	Yojee Limited	0.043	-14%	93,196	$8,485,231