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

On Stockhead today, the ASX biotechs hitting their Phase III straps, Guy Le Page’s graphite pick and why boring bonds are actually bonza.

But first … the day ahead.

TRADING HALTS

The following companies went into trading halts yesterday and are expected out in the next few days:

Anatara Lifesciences (ASX:ANR) – Capital Raise

Bowen Coking Coal (ASX:BCB) – Capital Raise

Roots Sustainable Agricultural Technologies (ASX:ROO) – Capital Raise

Novonix (ASX:NVX) – Announcement pending about a material funding arrangement

Odin Metals (ASX:ODM) – Capital Raise

Calix (ASX:CXL) – Capital Raise

Medibank Private (ASX:MPL) – Medibank’s juuuust about ready to make another announcement about a recent “cyber incident”.

Toys’R’Us ANZ (ASX:TOY) – things are on hold to assist the Company in managing its continuous disclosure obligations pending the release of an announcement regarding a potential new commercial agreement.

COMMODITY/ FOREX/ CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: $US1,640.45 (-0.76%)

Silver: $US18.540 (-1.17%)

Nickel (3mth): $US21,876/t

Copper (3mth): $US7,421/t

Lithium Carbonate, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, OCT 12): $US72,200/t (+108.2% year-to-date)

Lithium Hydroxide, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, OCT 12): $US71,850/t (+146.9% year-to-date)

Oil (WTI): $US83.513 (+0.84%)

Oil (Brent): $US90.60 (+0.63%)

Iron 62pc Fe: $US95.00 (+0.00%)

AUD/USD: 0.63033 (-0.11%)

Bitcoin: $US19,235.64 (-1.56%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING YESTERDAY?

This week’s MoneyTalks column caught your eye:

via @StockheadAU #Lithium, battery metals and #energy are hot plays right now. @DiscoveryCap managing director Adam Miethke has identified $ALV.AX as a small-cap explorer with assets worth taking a look at.

More: https://t.co/cOdgFplORB#AlvoMinerals #ALV #BatteryMetals #ASX

— Alvo Minerals Ltd (@AlvoMinerals) October 18, 2022

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Also, be sure to check in preopen each day for ‘Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch’, and 10.30am for our daily ‘10 at 10’ column — a live summary of winners & losers at the opening bell.

YESTERDAY’s BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow rose after making announcements during the trading day).

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

Mark Creasy-backed explorer Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS) picked up lithium in rock chips grading up to 3.32% at Andover, the Pilbara project best known for its namesake 75,000t (and growing) nickel-copper-cobalt discovery.

While developing this resource remains the focus, a lithium leg is certainly welcome with a drilling program being planned.

“The latest batch of assays returned high grades of lithium up to 3.32% Li2O, which is the highest lithium grade reported to date,” MD Tony Rovira said.

“Encouragingly, our geological mapping is identifying the presence of the preferred lithium-bearing mineral, spodumene, in many of the outcropping pegmatites.

“We’re planning for the first drilling program to target the pegmatites and will commence as soon as we have received the necessary approvals.

“The lithium exploration continues in parallel with our Ni-Cu-Co exploration where drilling is currently in progress on the Seaview and Pipeline prospects.”

Then there’s green energy player Delorean Corporation (ASX:DEL) which is forming a multi-project development funding partnership worth up to $200m with Palisade Impact.

“The partnership makes perfect sense for both Delorean and Palisade Impact. Palisade is a major Australian infrastructure investor which understands the bioenergy sector and has a solid track record backing winners and delivering solid investor returns and Delorean’s status as an award-winning ESG-focussed pioneer of the sector is a neat fit for its impact fund,” MD Joe Oliver said.

And worth a mention is Toys R Us (ASX:TOY) which got a speeding ticket from the ASX and then went into a trading halt to “assist the Company in managing its continuous disclosure obligations pending the release of an announcement regarding a potential new commercial agreement”, according to an ASX announcement this afternoon.

A prolonged, sharp spike in price over the past week saw the company rise 195.2% (34.7% today alone), after a weighty buy-in by Tiga Trading, aka Thorney Technologies, aka Alex Waislitz.

YESTERDAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow fell after making announcements during the trading day).

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

South Aussie dairy company Beston Global (ASX:BFC) announced a capital raising that didn’t go down too well. The company is raising ~28m at 2.5c per share – a massive 60.4% discount to the 5-day VWAP of 6.3c.

And IT interconnection services company Megaport (ASX:MP1) was also in the losers column despite reporting solid Q1 Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) growth of 9% QoQ, up $913k to $11.6m in September.

Total revenue for the quarter was $33.7m, up 10% compared to the last quarter. Annualised recurring revenue at 30 September was $139m.

Harsh.