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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to 29 February, 2024 – an important day on the calendar because it doesn’t happen very often… once every four years, to be precise, because otherwise we’d lose around 6 hours every year, and when that kind of time starts to pile up down the back of the couch, it’s a bugger to clean up properly when people are coming over.

It’s also an important day on the scientific calendar, as it was on this day in 1908 that Dutch scientists managed to produce solid helium for the first time.

Helium is, of course, most commonly found naturally occurring inside birthday balloons, but at the right temperature it will turn into a liquid.

However, it takes a combination of low temperature and extremely high pressure to get helium to crystalise into a solid form, which means it is – physically speaking – the precise opposite of an elderly gentleman’s junk.

The good news is that you don’t need to be under that sort of pressure to go hard on the ASX today, because we’ve got Cam’s look at what’s happening in Canada’s critical minerals scene, and Eddy’s deep dive into local health stocks to get you all riled up before the market opens – including more details on the one what spiked 400 PER CENT yesterday.

And, as always there’s words and numbers down below for you to scour now and then pretend to be shocked by when the market opens later on this morning.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,033.59 (+0.20%)

Silver: US$22.44 (+0.06%)

Nickel (3mth): US$17,460/t (+1.69%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,464/t (+0.09%)

Oil (WTI): US$78.44 (-0.55%)

Oil (Brent): US$83.47 (-0.21%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$125.36/t (-0.38%)

AUD/USD: 0.6496 (-0.70%)

Bitcoin: US$60,165 (+5.5%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Earlybird Eddy’s been ripping the Band-Aids off to get to the bottom of what’s up with our local market’s health stocks.

In #ASX #health #stocks news: Neuren’s ($NEU) Daybue sales meet target; @ProteomicsI ($PIQ) granted patent in Europe; and @Nyrada_Inc’s ($NYR) brain injury drug shows efficacy in animal testing. https://t.co/s6ycVujFAD

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) February 27, 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
NYR	Nyrada Inc.	0.099	421%	100,159,913	$2,964,165
ADS	Adslot Ltd.	0.003	50%	1,730,567	$6,448,991
ICR	Intelicare Holdings	0.022	47%	290,369	$3,522,367
HRZ	Horizon	0.042	40%	2,163,582	$21,029,510
5EA	5Eadvanced	0.315	40%	2,998,293	$70,463,536
DNA	Donaco International	0.048	37%	777,276	$43,238,628
AUK	Aumake Limited	0.004	33%	700,590	$5,743,220
IS3	I Synergy Group Ltd	0.008	33%	25,000	$1,824,482
NOX	Noxopharm Limited	0.079	32%	386,998	$17,534,277
PPY	Papyrus Australia	0.017	31%	103,791	$6,405,004
PPG	Pro-Pac Packaging	0.26	30%	3,849	$36,337,542
PKD	Parkd Ltd	0.028	27%	20,000	$2,288,305
EGR	Ecograf Limited	0.195	26%	1,069,677	$70,374,932
CHN	Chalice Mining Ltd	1.265	25%	8,381,204	$392,852,937
ATH	Alterity Therap Ltd	0.005	25%	4,085,531	$17,531,019
GLV	Global Oil & Gas	0.02	25%	22,147,815	$7,472,005
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.0025	25%	8,893,628	$12,394,892
RBR	RBR Group Ltd	0.0025	25%	5,950,479	$3,236,809
ROG	Red Sky Energy.	0.005	25%	1,886,847	$21,688,909
TMX	Terrain Minerals	0.005	25%	280,000	$5,726,683
ADN	Andromeda Metals Ltd	0.0275	25%	16,196,340	$68,425,961
BMO	Bastion Minerals	0.011	22%	26,063,786	$2,802,997
BRN	Brainchip Ltd	0.39	22%	51,472,539	$577,860,699
APX	Appen Limited	0.59	22%	14,319,920	$106,332,307
GTG	Genetic Technologies	0.12	21%	429,297	$11,426,307

Yesterday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Mauling markets like an incensed bull shark of no fixed address was the suddenly punchy Aussie drug discovery and development company Nyrada (ASX:NYR).

Nyrada’s lead Brain Injury Program drug candidate NYR-BI03 – “a first-in-class therapy with a novel mechanism of action targeting significant market opportunity” – demonstrated strong efficacy in reducing injury in a preclinical study, the company has reported.

NYR specialises in novel small molecule therapeutics to treat neurological and cardiovascular diseases. The company went proper ballistic, powering through more than +420% – and there was much rejoicing.

Also making big moves was the everywhere-listed Ecograf (ASX:EGR) after reporting positive findings from a research program completed by the Helmholtz Institute in Germany, where EcoGraf’s proprietary processing technology has been used to purify graphite particles recovered from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries.

EcoGraf purified the recovered graphite particles to battery grade specification.

The German Government funded program then compared the electrochemical performance of (the recycled) EcoGraf HFfree graphite with a number of commercial battery graphite products. And there was much rejoicing.

The company says further research is required before anyone sells the house.

Finally, 5E Advanced Materials (ASX:5EA) was still killing it on Wednesday.

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
NME	Nex Metals Explorat	0.013	-41%	13,000	$7,755,716
E79	E79Goldmineslimited	0.047	-30%	835,800	$5,449,384
OPN	Oppenneg	0.008	-27%	1,185,001	$12,420,976
W2V	Way2Vatltd	0.02	-26%	43,160,884	$17,593,428
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.0015	-25%	7,150,224	$8,970,108
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.0015	-25%	1,031,196	$15,569,766
RR1	Reach Resources Ltd	0.0015	-25%	1,604,267	$6,420,594
TTI	Traffic Technologies	0.007	-22%	1,314,428	$6,819,032
AUA	Audeara	0.048	-20%	1,030,553	$8,676,464
MXO	Motio Ltd	0.02	-20%	182,536	$6,704,959
CNJ	Conico Ltd	0.002	-20%	1,000,001	$3,925,237
CTO	Citigold Corp Ltd	0.004	-20%	1,142,000	$15,000,000
GNM	Great Northern	0.016	-20%	507,049	$3,092,582
LNR	Lanthanein Resources	0.004	-20%	159,642	$6,449,060
PEC	Perpetual Res Ltd	0.008	-20%	2,808,032	$6,400,294
SHO	Sportshero Ltd	0.014	-18%	535,214	$10,503,158
NAG	Nagambie Resources	0.024	-17%	1,110,181	$23,102,435
G50	Gold50Limited	0.07	-17%	9,790	$9,180,360
DUN	Dundasminerals	0.03	-17%	315,565	$2,846,829
IVX	Invion Ltd	0.005	-17%	1,747,999	$38,547,193
VAL	Valor Resources Ltd	0.0025	-17%	7,000,000	$13,767,040
PLG	Pearlgullironlimited	0.031	-16%	371,449	$7,568,046
NMR	Native Mineral Res	0.021	-16%	218,540	$5,243,763
C7A	Clara Resources	0.016	-16%	197,998	$3,591,742
GRL	Godolphin Resources	0.032	-16%	47,369	$6,431,197