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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Thursday, September 28 2023 – a date on the calendar of enormous significance for a number of reasons, but perhaps most famously because in 1066, a plucky young  French cheese farmer called William took some boats with a few dudes over the channel to England to deal with King Harold II.

It was a terrifyingly brutal campaign which resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 people, ending with the Battle of Hastings which was something of a lopsided affair, because no one told the English that they were allowed to bring horses.

The end result was William, duke of Normandy, being renamed William the Conqueror by his mates, and William the Bastard by the families of the dead, and a few people who knew him pretty well.

William went on to be crowned King William I, while the rest of the Normans were charmed by the wiles and guile of the Grinningest Mega Gnome of that age, teaming up with Gerry Harvey to develop a pre-electricity whitegoods start-up.

The Battle of Hastings was, of course, turned into an early form of animation – the 70m long Bayeux Tapestry, which looks a bit like a short movie if you run alongside it at sufficient pace while blinking your eyes 24 times a second.

As a record of history, the Bayeux Tapestry is considered to be quite a comprehensive document, noting not only how seriously the English had their pasty backsides kicked, but also the appearance of Halley’s Comet in the skies above the initial appearance of King Harold, a portent of doom for the short-lived King of England.

Whether the comet showing up for its regular high-speed whizz-by of the Earth was actually a sign of terrible things to come is a matter of some conjecture – but, given how notoriously superstitious people were at the time, it was most likely seen as a crucial piece of information that really shouldn’t be ignored.

Much like the crucial pieces of information (and this seamless segue) that the Stockhead team have worked hard to bring you today, to get you all set up for what lies ahead.

So if you’d prefer to finish the day as a William the Conqueror, rather than a King Harold the Hacked to Pieces, you should definitely read Eddy Sunarto’s “Common mistakes in trading”, knowing that we’ve made them all for you so you don’t have to.

Hoo boy have we made them all…

As always, here’s all the fiddly bits from yesterday to get you up and running nice and early, as well.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,876.78 (-1.25%)

Silver: US$22.54 (-1.40%)

Nickel (3mth): US$19,050/t (+0.92%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,080/t (-0.14%)

Oil (WTI): US$93.89 (+3.89%)

Oil (Brent): US$96.73 (+2.95%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$120.84/t (-0.07%)

AUD/USD: 0.6348 (-0.75%)

Bitcoin: US$26,318 (+0.50%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Two things captured your attention yesterday – uranium, and a gigantic sculpted butthole that has Florida’s Palm Springs residents calling for the town planner’s head. It’s a tough choice on which one of those deserves being highlighted again here, so I’m gonna have to go with the limestone clacker, solely on the basis that it’s way funnier than yellowcake.

#ASX #SmallCaps Lunch Wrap: Local #markets have slipped 0.4%, #Health Care has fallen hard, but #uranium digger Haranga’s freshly cashed up and making waves today. | #stocks #trading https://t.co/4m4WGZlpyg

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) September 27, 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:

Yesterday’s Small Caps highlights were:

Haranga Resources (ASX:HAR), smashed it on Wednesday, climbing throughout the day to sit comfortably atop the small cap ladder at with a gain of 63% late in afternoon trade.

That’s all happening because the company’s secured firm commitments for $2.86m in heavily oversubscribed funding.

The $10.9m market-capped uranium explorer is looking to expand its maiden JORC uranium resource of 12.5Mt @ 587ppm eU3O8 for 16.1Mlbs at the Saraya uranium project in Senegal.

Philippines-focused Aussie fintech Peppermint Innovation (ASX:PIL) jumped about 50% after sharing the long-awaited and terribly welcome news that its subsidiary, Peppermint Bizmoto Inc has secured 2x “vitally important certifications” from the Central Bank of the Philippines, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

In an acronym-rich release to the ASX, PIL says that the BSP issued PIL’s PBI with:

1) A Certificate of Registration (COR) as Operator of Payment System (OPS) and;

2) A Certificate of Eligibility (COE) for membership in the Philippines Payments Management Inc. (PPMI)

The certificates allow Peppermint a direct connection to the PESONet and InstaPay Automated Clearing Houses as a Sending and Receiving Participant under the Philippines National Retail Payment System.

Shares in Mighty Kingdom (ASX:MKL) jumped in late arvo trade, after the gaming stock revealed that exactly 52,496,666 fully paid ordinary shares will be released from escrow on 2 October 2023, as per its prospectus.

The release is welcome news for the Aussie gaming minnow, which hired lawyers last week to chase down their own ex-CEO for circa $2.1 million, and which it says are owed by the gaming company’s largest shareholder Gamestar Studios founded by ex MKL CEO Shane Yeend.

Flynn Gold (ASX:FG1) also surged on news that the company has commenced drilling at Tasmania’s Warrentinna Project testing a high grade, near-surface gold target zone identified by historical drill results that include a thumping 5.0m @ 28.93g/t Au from 36.0m, including 1.0m @ 103.25g/t Au from 37.0m.

Recent market leader OzAurum Resources (ASX:OZM) gained another double digit increase early yesterday on an amended announcement that the company has completed its due diligence on the Linopolis Jaime hard rock lithium project acquisition in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

The buy is a go, which means managing director/CEO Andrew Pumphrey will be travelling to Brazil mid-October to commence fieldwork, progress the purchase of OZM diamond drilling rig and “pursue any other potential lithium opportunities should they arise”.

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:

TRADING HALTS

Lithium Power International (ASX:LPI) – Pending the release of an announcement in response to recent media speculation involving the company.

Dreadnought Resources (ASX:DRE) – Pending a release regarding a capital raising.