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

Good morning. If you’re reading this, it means that you’ve survived Wednesday and (hopefully) you’re in good enough shape to get through today, nap through Friday and then hit the weekend with enough left in the tank to enjoy what is shaping up as the last pleasant weekend in Australia before the nation heats up to the temperature of the sun, and we all get slowly broiled.

There’s a bit happening on the markets today, as divvy week starts getting serious thanks to some of the ASX’s bigger names start handing out free money.

Companies like Breville (ASX:BRG), which is delivering $0.155 per share, and Brambles (ASX:BXB) which has $0.218 per share to hand over, will no doubt be making shareholders marginally richer throughout today.

Tomorrow will see some solid payouts as well, from the likes of EQT Holdings (ASX:EQT) which has $0.50 a pop on the table, and Cash Converters International (ASX:CCV) which is offering up $0.01 per share, because “it’s the best we can offer”, and “the market’s flooded with divvies at the moment, so those shares will just sit on a shelf for ages”.

In terms of stuff to read today, we’ve got you covered – Josh Chiat’s got all the gossip about the WNA uranium demand forecast, Cam Drummond has a dive into what’s happening to little companies while world governments tip more and more money into battery metals, and we’ve updated Mike Cooper’s seminal piece on everything you want to know about defence stocks, but were afraid to ask because they’re all very heavily armed.

As usual, here are all the bits and pieces from here and there yesterday – and happy hunting today.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1908.57 (-0.25%)

Silver: US$22.83 (-1.20%)

Nickel (3mth): US$20,150/t (+1.14%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,394/t (+0.04%)

Oil (WTI): US$88.81 (-0.03%)

Oil (Brent): US$92.14 (+0.09%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$120.53/t (+0.17%)

AUD/USD: 0.6423 (+0.05%)

Bitcoin: US$26,260 (+1.55%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

The story behind a handful of Health stocks going legitimately bananas this week caught everyone’s eye, apparently – probably because it’s super interesting, and quite a number of people will have done very, very well because of it all.

In #ASX #health #stocks:

🕴️ Starpharma jumps after positive Phase 1/2 results
🛏️ Chimeric to commence Phase 1b #trial
™️ Island granted key US #patent #medical #biotech #drugs #clinicaltrial https://t.co/w43Qj5Inye

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) September 13, 2023

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
CLE	Cyclone Metals	0.0015	50%	494,336	$10,264,505
MEB	Medibio Limited	0.0015	50%	1,105,000	$6,100,744
TMR	Tempus Resources Ltd	0.024	41%	1,287,019	$5,301,250
MTH	Mithril Resources	0.002	33%	150,000	$5,053,207
PTL	Pental Ltd	0.405	29%	1,295,975	$53,694,742
PPY	Papyrus Australia	0.028	27%	140,000	$10,836,487
JBY	James Bay Minerals	0.375	25%	5,891,307	$9,733,500
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.0025	25%	2,473,592	$15,569,766
SPX	Spenda Limited	0.01	25%	2,438,848	$29,371,377
8VI	8Vi Holdings Limited	0.13	24%	2,666	$4,400,699
PUR	Pursuit Minerals	0.011	22%	7,225,877	$26,495,743
PEB	Pacific Edge	0.11	22%	14,501	$72,964,540
SPL	Starpharma Holdings	0.1575	21%	7,818,927	$53,364,100
ELE	Elmore Ltd	0.006	20%	1,592,303	$6,996,919
PRX	Prodigy Gold NL	0.006	20%	499,500	$8,755,539
BDT	Birddog	0.13	18%	204,969	$21,831,931
CHW	Chilwaminerals	0.175	17%	3,000	$6,881,250
ECG	Ecargo Hldg	0.035	17%	41,224	$18,457,500
JNO	Juno	0.07	17%	472,030	$8,139,480
A3D	Aurora Labs Limited	0.028	17%	675,368	$5,899,394
ECT	Env Clean Tech Ltd.	0.007	17%	6,215,587	$17,085,331
GCR	Golden Cross	0.0035	17%	200,000	$3,291,768
STA	Strandline Res Ltd	0.145	16%	6,517,928	$182,820,529
STP	Step One Limited	0.58	16%	116,820	$92,670,146
AFL	Af Legal Group Ltd	0.19	15%	25,075	$12,962,634

Yesterday’s Small Caps standouts were:

Shares in naughty metals explorer Tempus Resources (ASX:TMR) absolutely surged, jumping almost 50% in the space of a few hours this morning on a distinct lack of news, before the ASX Highway cops steeped in, took them down and the shares were placed in restraining cuffs and put in a halt.

Tempus’ has gold exploration licences in Canada as well as some gold and copper prospects in Ecuador. The stock had shed almost its own bodyweight since clocking an all-time weigh-in high of 37¢ back in late 2020.

Shares were last traded at 2.4¢.

Pental (ASX:PTL) has made some bold moves since popping out of its own Trading Halt. The home, hygiene and e-commerce product developer and supplier is offloading its Consumer Products Business and a great big factory in beautiful Shepparton to none other than Selley’s, which some of you may recall is in the paints ‘n stuff business as part of Dulux Group.

The sale price is a cool $60m and comes with an exciting payout for punters:

A fully franked special dividend ‘of up to approximately 6 cents per share expected to be paid on or around 15 December 2023’
An intended capital return ‘of up to approximately 18 cents per share (aggregate of $30.7 million) subject to shareholder approval at Pental’s 2023 annual general meeting and tax advice (expected to be paid on or around 15 December 2023)’;
And an additional fully franked special dividend ‘of up to approximately 7 cents per share (aggregate of $11.9 million) to be paid 8 months after completion of the Proposed Transaction.’

And that’ll be in addition to Pental’s otherwise enormous fully franked dividend of 1 cent per share.

Unsurprisingly, Pental’s directors unanimously recommend that Pental shareholders vote in favour of the sale, in the absence of a better offer.

Up 40% near the close.

James Bay Minerals (ASX:JBY) is finding life as a listed concern a piece of lithium pie. On day 2 the Canada-facing lithium explorer is doing what it did yesterday, climbing unsteadily, but definitely climbing – it was up circa 28% near the close, now almost double its $0.20 listing price.

Starpharma (ASX:SPL) is up over 22% on news that interim data from the Phase 1/2 clinical trial of DEP irinotecan shows that the drug prompts durable responses for up to 72 weeks in CRC patients receiving DEP irinotecan monotherapy, with a disease control rate (DCR) of 48%.

The clinical data was obtained from heavily pre-treated, advanced metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) or platinum-resistant/refractory ovarian cancer patients. and will be presented at an upcoming key international oncology conference.

Additionally, SPL says the data shows a 100% disease control rate in patients receiving DEP irinotecan in combination with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and leucovorin (LV).

So… it works.

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
FRE	Firebrickpharma	0.063	-81%	31,068,947	$37,459,686
NXMR	Nexus Minerals Ltd	0.001	-50%	934,841	$130,181
MXC	Mgc Pharmaceuticals	0.002	-33%	166,734	$13,283,905
FAU	First Au Ltd	0.003	-25%	10,000	$5,807,973
KNM	Kneomedia Limited	0.003	-25%	1,600,000	$6,019,141
NIS	Nickelsearch	0.045	-25%	15,781,416	$5,737,823
92E	92Energy	0.27	-23%	2,806,783	$37,231,286
EXT	Excite Technology	0.007	-22%	2,272,169	$10,433,176
MEL	Metgasco Ltd	0.009	-18%	6,053,895	$11,702,754
AUA	Audeara	0.041	-18%	55,000	$7,165,000
E25	Element 25 Ltd	0.29	-17%	1,110,419	$76,135,617
PNX	PNX Metals Limited	0.0025	-17%	200,000	$16,141,874
PUA	Peak Minerals Ltd	0.0025	-17%	190,113	$3,124,130
SIS	Simble Solutions	0.005	-17%	100,000	$3,617,704
SIT	Site Group Int Ltd	0.0025	-17%	27,625,474	$7,807,471
TMX	Terrain Minerals	0.005	-17%	4,160,308	$6,499,196
E33	East 33 Limited.	0.021	-16%	1,583,103	$12,977,217
SRR	Saramaresourcesltd	0.022	-15%	238,373	$1,462,583
XST	Xstate Resources	0.011	-15%	26,892	$4,179,749
YOJ	Yojee Limited	0.011	-15%	10,568,492	$14,757,659
PRM	Prominence Energy	0.017	-15%	1,701,293	$2,424,618
ENV	Enova Mining Limited	0.006	-14%	322,518	$3,420,632
IEC	Intra Energy Corp	0.006	-14%	905,070	$11,345,471
LRL	Labyrinth Resources	0.006	-14%	350,000	$8,312,806
LSR	Lodestar Minerals	0.006	-14%	959,667	$14,146,281