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Good morning everyone, and welcome to 15 July, 2024 – an important date in the history of making sure that everyone in both families is cool that two people are getting hitched.

That’s because it was on this day in 1500 that Astorre Baglione and Lavinia Colonna were supposed to get married, with a big ceremony planned in the city of Perugia, in central Italy.

The fact that it’s being mentioned here is a good indication that the bride and groom’s Big Day didn’t quite go as planned, after some of the more junior members of the Baglione family decided to use the wedding as the perfect excuse to ‘clean house’.

Led by Grifonetto Baglioni, a small group descended on the wedding and – in true Game of Thrones style – put about 200 members of the Baglione family to the sword.

The groom, Astorre, was singled out and brutalised, with an account of the massacre claiming that one of the attackers removed Astorre’s heart from his chest, and took a bite out of it, which I think we can all agree is super-gross and totes unnecessary.

Anyway – luckily for you, you won’t need to massacre 200 members of your own family in order to get your hands on the info you need today because – as always – I’ve thrown together lots of fiddly little things below, so you don’t need to go ferreting all over the internet for your ASX info this morning.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,411.11 (-0.20%)

Silver: US$30.77 (-1.98%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,856/t (+0.28%)

Copper (3mth): US$9,695/t (-0.68%)

Zinc: US$2,934/t (-0.54%)

Oil (WTI): US$82.10 (-0.50%)

Oil (Brent): US$85.03 (-0.43%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$109.58/t (-1.55%)

AUD/USD: 0.6780 (+0.03%)

Bitcoin: US$59,917.80 (+0.97%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Catch up on all the Small Caps action from last week, which I’d love you to read because I spent ages putting it together…

 

 

FRIDAY’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

 

Small Cap Winners included:

A late mover on Friday was Pearl Gull, which has found a circuitous route to securing some Ionic Absorption Clays (IAC) and Rare earths (REEs) farm-in agreement – potentially tapping into some tasty REEs out of the emerging IAC REE province on the coastal belt of Chile.

Pearl Gull Iron (ASX:PLG) says it’s struck a deal to acquire a company called Huemul and it says Huemul has just struck a deal (and is negotiating a further deal) to earn up to an 80% interest in a company called NeoRe SpA.

This NeoRe SpA holds tenements and tenement applications in Chile, “highly prospective” for IACs and REEs – known as the La Marigen.

PLG says Project La Marigen has 5 tenement and tenement applications covering a combined area of ~22,800ha along the prospective coastal belt.

Up about 23% is the Aussie biotech Immutep (ASX:IMM), which has dropped some positive results from its Efti drug combination study with Merck & Co’s anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA, as a first-line treatment for head and neck cancers.  IMM says its Efti combination got the highest recorded positive response for a treatment approach not containing chemotherapy.

IMM says that based on the “encouraging results and high unmet medical need,”  it will discuss the next step forward with regulators.

A surprise winner among the Aussie mid caps is fashion web retailer Cettire (ASX:CTT).

CTT  has shaken off some of the recent short-selling interest it’s been attracting, up a chunky 25% after earlier this week welcoming investment banker Jon Gidney to the Board.

The stock is still down about 40% year-to-date.

Investsmart (ASX:INV) is having a great Friday, the wealth platform dropping some encouraging numbers in a business update despite tricky conditions.

The company delivered an operating profit for the fourth quarter after rationalising it’s cost base. Shares have kicked about 25% higher.

SKS Technologies (ASX:SKS)  has lifted forward guidance for FY25, expecting total annual revenue at circa $200+ million.

CEO Matthew Jinks says the boost is based on “continually accelerating level of work on hand and the recently announced $90+ million project for an international hyperscale data centre project in Melbourne.”

 

FRIDAY’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 

Althea Group (ASX:AGH) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raise.

Argent Biopharma (ASX:RGT) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raising.

Norwest Minerals (ASX:NWM) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raise.

Investigator Resources (ASX:IVR) – pending exploration drilling results under the Stuart Shelf Joint Venture.

Freehill Mining (ASX:FHS) – pending an announcement to ASX in connection with capital raising activities.

Augustus Minerals (ASX:AUG) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raise.

Read MoreASX announcements

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