Good morning everyone, and welcome to Tuesday morning in a week when the market’s being at the mercy of dividend payments begins.

The next few weeks are going to be a busy time for whoever’s been tasked with distributing profits back to investors, but at least this year things are starting relatively small, and working their way up as September progresses.

Before Friday is run and done, around $1.2 billion worth of divvies will have been disbursed by just eight companies, which sounds like a lot until you realise that the following week will see roughly $3 billion roll out the door.

The week after that one is juicier still – about $22 billion is earmarked for dividend payments, according to prominent CBA economist, Craig James, who has taken a few precious hours away from becoming even more weirdly muscular to crunch the numbers, like giant walnuts betwixt his meaty thighs.

… I should probably delete that, but I won’t. I’ll leave it there as a semi-permanent reminder that I should try and get more sleep.

Anyhow – we’ve got a big day ahead of us, and to help you prep, we’ve been hard at work putting together a cracker of a reading list for the morning.

That includes Eddy Sunarto’s look at what the brokers are thinking about this week, as he unpicks their picks to see what makes them tick, and Josh Chiat has discovered a veritable horde of Canadian resource stocks stampeding to dual list on the ASX.

Below you’ll find all the usual bits’n’pieces to get you up to speed before they fling open the market doors later on today.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,921.88 (+0.21%)

Silver: US$23.07 (+0.71%)

Nickel (3mth): US$20,485/t (+2.16%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,402/t (+1.94%)

Oil (WTI): US$87.26 (-0.28%)

Oil (Brent): US$90.07 (-0.71%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$118.23/t (+1%).14

AUD/USD: 0.6429 (+0.84%)

Bitcoin: US$25,145 (-2.74%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Danish pharma mob Novo has taken it upon itself to step up the Battle of the Bulge, and it certainly raised a few eyebrows among investors yesterday.

 

 

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 Caps standouts were:

Well, incredibly Novo Resources (ASX:NVO) ended flat after it jumped as high as 38% on its market debut yesterday.

After raising $7.5m to join the ASX, Canadian gold miner Novo Resources sits Smaug-like atop one of the largest prospective tenures for gold and battery metals in WA’s Pilbara region for 10,500km2 and is concentrating on the development of its Egina JV with its biggest shareholder, De Grey Mining (ASX:DEG).

Back in June, De Grey Mining made a cornerstone investment of $35m to earn up to a 50% interest in Novo’s Becher gold project, 28km away from DEG’s massive Hemi gold deposit which forms part of the 11.7Moz Mallina gold project. In Victoria, Novo also owns the Belltopper project.

Novo executive co-chairman and acting CEO Mike Spreadborough said this was an exciting milestone for Novo, which is looking forward to “continuing to deliver value to its new and existing shareholders” through the ASX listing.

In Canadian accent:

“We are delighted to be listed on the ASX and I would like to welcome all new shareholders to Novo, the future is very exciting. I would also like to extend my thanks to all the many people involved in getting us to this stage and acknowledge all the hard work that went into getting us ASX ready.

“The ASX listing is the logical next step for Novo and will facilitate our Australian growth plans, considering the local investor appetite for mining and exploration opportunities. We are focused on accelerating our exploration activities and seeking value accretive opportunities to grow long-term shareholder value.

“We have several exploration programs planned for the second half of 2023 and we look forward to getting boots on the ground and drill rigs spinning. We will be delivering regular updates as drilling progresses at Becher, Nunyerry North, Balla Balla and our Belltopper Project in Victoria. We also look forward to working with our Egina JV partner De Grey, as they take over all exploration efforts within the Egina JV, with a 39,000 m program set to commence at Becher in September.”

Shares were listed at 20c and traders got in and got out by the close.

Cirrus Networks (ASX:CNW), added 30% on news that it’s entered into a Scheme Implementation Deed under which it is proposed Atturra will acquire 100% of Cirrus for $0.053 per share.

Octava Minerals (ASX:OCT) now owns 100% of its Talga lithium project in the WA Pilbara after purchasing the remaining 30% from First Au (ASX:FAU).

This includes a 20% free carried interest held by FAU to a decision to mine via a $200,000 cash payment, the issue of 1.25 million shares to FAU to be escrowed for six months, and a 0.75% net smelter royalty.

Octava shot up 27% in early trade, but settled lower in arvo trade.

Elsewhere, Orange Minerals (ASX:OMX)  was up over 32% on no news I could see, and I looked all day.

And Australian Critical Minerals (ASX:ACM) also rose sharply up 18%, again on nothing I spotted, other than evidently being terrific companies on Monday.

 

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

International Graphite (ASX:IG6) – Pending the release of an announcement regarding an upgrade to the Mineral Resource Estimate at the Springdale Graphite Project.

iCetana (ASX:ICE) – Pending news of a capital raise.

 

Read MoreCopperGoldLithiumLithium NewsLithium StocksNickelTech

Featured Companies

You might be interested in