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Good morning everyone, and welcome to 03 April, 2024 – an important day in the history of thrilling entertainment, as it was on this day in 1877 that the first ever human cannonball took flight.

Picture the scene: it’s a dank and stinky Victorian-era London, where good times were hard to find, unless one was able to afford a stand-up knee-trembler with a lady of loose virtues and, presumably, even looser undergarments.

It was a time when audiences would flock to anything new and novel – and the promise of a 14-year-old girl called Zazel being shot out of a cannon was enough to bring the city of London to a relative standstill.

Zazel’s real name was Rossa Matilda Richter. She was born to a family of circus performers, before striking out on her own at a very young age and becoming the protege of Canadian circus superstar William Leonard Hunt, who you probably know better as The Great Farini.

The Great Farini was more than just an extremely beardy acrobat – he was also quite the inventor, filing a patent in 1877 for a “certain new apparatus for Projecting Persons and Articles into or through the air”.

Highly adept on a high wire and trapeze, Zazel was, I’m guessing, the right size and shape for The Great Farini’s cannon – and following some (hopefully) non-lethal testing, Zazel and Farini’s cannon made their public debut at The Royal Aquarium in London.

“Farini stood at the cannon, looking evil in his black beard, commanding the sweet, beautiful young Zazel  to enter the mortar, then lighting the fuse  to a great flourish, sending her across the hall and into a net of his own invention,” wrote historian Shane Peacock.

The performance was a hit, upstaging the Aquarium’s only genuine aquatic exhibit at the time – a dead whale, which was put on display by the venue’s directors, after the much-vaunted tanks and water system proved completely unable to sustain even the most hardy of fish.

What a time to be alive. Or dead, in the case of London’s most famous Victorian era whale.

Luckily for us, though, none of the Stockhead team have been killed and put on display for the delight of curious 19th century Londoners – instead, they’ve been busy putting the finishing touches on a range of fab stories to keep you enthralled with all the thrills and spills of being shot out of a cannon in an enclosed space, aka having a punt among the Small Caps.

So roll up, roll and witness the amazing beardless Christian battle Australia’s unstoppable housing juggernaut, Jess Cummins tame Lion (Selection Group’s) Hedley Widdup into giving up four gold picks, and Rob the Badman round up all the news surrounding amazing electric horseless carriages.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll… no, you can’t have your money back.

And – as always – there’s words and numbers down below for you to load into your own cannon and detonate, as required, to show all those around you that you really know your stiff when the market opens later today.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,257.21 (+0.28%)

Silver: US$25.32 (+0.83%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,568.00/t (+0.65%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,778.36/t (+0.01%)

Oil (WTI): US$84.22 (+0.40%)

Oil (Brent): US$87.83 (+0.27%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$102.50/t (+0.49%)

AUD/USD: 0.6522 (+0.03%)

Bitcoin: US$66,597.60 (-4.45%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Here’s yesterday’s Resources Top 6, which I’m giving a run in this slot because the almighty Rob Badman has picked the image of the year to illustrate it. I can’t stop laughing at how ruthlessly dumb it is. What a legend.

 

 

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:

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

Yesterday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Dart Mining (ASX:DTM) went soaring 135% in the opening minutes of play Tuesday, only to have the ASX throw on the handbrake because there wasn’t any announcement that warranted that kind of early morning action.

Turns out that our very own Garimpeiro had struck again, turning that burning, steely gaze of his at Dart Mining and staring at it until its share price got superhot and exploded, like a kernel of solid gold popcorn beneath the concentrated power of the sun.

Anyway – Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) was second on the list because of last week’s news that the FDA has effectively reversed its call that cratered the company stock price in July last year.

NeuroScientific Biopharmaceuticals (ASX:NSB)  was also on the rise, climbing on news that the company has filed a Pre-Investigation New Drug Application (‘pre-IND’) meeting request with the US Food and Drug Administration (‘FDA’) for EmtinB for treatment of advanced glaucoma in adults.

Additionally, NSB also announced that it has appointed current non-executive director, Dr Tony Keating as executive director, initially on a part-time basis following the resignation of Dougal Thring as chief operating officer.

Power and gas retailer TPC Consolidated (ASX:TPC) was up after it attracted a takeover offer from Beijing Energy International at $8.77/sh cash, plus special dividend and/or return of capital of up to $2.64/sh and the right to potential earn out scheme consideration of up to $4.41/sh. The TPC board recommends the deal, by the way.

Pot stock Melodiol (ASX:ME1) announced Canadian subsidiary Mernova has approvals to launch new products across several provincial markets. It delivered $1.75m of unaudited revenue in Q1 2024, up 13% on Q1 2023, with the Q2 order book already sitting at $373,000. It was up 60% this morning to $0.008.

Lord Resources (ASX:LRD) was up on an update from its Jingjing Lithium project, located 50km northeast of Norseman, in Western Australia. The company said that an infill soil sampling program is set to commence this week, to refine four priority lithium targets in advance of inaugural drilling, anticipated Q3 2024.

 

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:

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

TRADING HALTS

PharmAust (ASX:PAA) –  pending an announcement in relation to an article on page 30 of yesterday’s West Australian.

Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R) – pending an announcement relating to a proposed capital raising.

Admiralty Resources (ASX:ADY) – pending the completion of a proposed capital raising.

Winsome Resources (ASX:WR1) –  pending the release of an announcement disclosing the details of a corporate asset acquisition.

Alterra (ASX:1AG) – pending an announcement by the Company concerning an update regarding its Delisting.

Nova Minerals (ASX:NVA) – pending an announcement regarding a proposed capital raise.

Southern Cross Gold (ASX:SXG) – pending an announcement to the market in relation to a capital raising.

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