Top 10 at 11: Assay results and juicy defence contract are making news today.

Good morning, and welcome to Stockhead’s Top 10 at shortly-before-11-ish, which is meant to highlight the best (and sometimes worst) performing ASX stocks in morning trade using live data, to provide a short, sharp update to help frame the trading day by showing the biggest movers in percentage terms.

The market opens at 10am (eastern time) and the data is taken at 10:15am, once every ASX stock has started trading – for better or worse – and then I do my best to make sense of who’s moving where and why it might be happening.

Local markets have opened lower, and at 10.30am the ASX 200 was sitting at -0.34%, after a mixed result on Friday for Wall Street that saw record highs. However, US stock futures fell pre-market on Sunday, and Aussie markets have taken a small hit.

Here’s what’s been happening since the doors were opened this morning

WINNERS

Stocks highlighted in yellow have made market-moving announcements (click headings to sort).

Code	Description	Last	%	Volume	MktCap
ARR	American Rare Earths	0.225	41%	3,634,733	$71,427,728
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.002	33%	501,227	$11,677,324
FTC	Fintech Chain Ltd	0.014	27%	5,000	$7,158,465
DOU	Douugh Limited	0.005	25%	263,000	$4,328,276
IEC	Intra Energy Corp	0.0025	25%	10,000,000	$3,381,563
LNR	Lanthanein Resources	0.006	20%	1,832,754	$6,449,060
M4M	Macro Metals Limited	0.003	20%	468,000	$6,167,694
SUH	Southern Hem Min	0.049	20%	15,036	$24,210,758
REE	Rarex Limited	0.019	19%	1,402,690	$10,934,185
VR1	Vection Technologies	0.033	18%	2,994,740	$31,544,491

Macro Metals (ASX:M4M) has reached an agreement with Aurora Energy Metals (ASX:1AE) to extend the exclusivity period in relation to Macro Metals’ proposed acquisition of an 85% interest in the lithium rights over the Aurora Energy Metals Project in Oregon, announced to the market back in late November last year.

Vection Technologies (ASX:VR1) has announced that the company has the award of a contract valued at $4.9m on a Total Contract Value basis for cyber security-focused ICT infrastructure in partnership with DELL, all of which is expected to be recognised in 3Q FY24.

American Rare Earths (ASX:ARR) is charging pretty hard this morning, possibly on the heels of Friday’s investor presentation, and late news that chairman Ken Traub has been replaced by Non-Executive Director Richard Hudson. Traub is set to remain on the board as a Non-Executive Director.

LOSERS

Stocks highlighted in yellow have made market-moving announcements (click headings to sort).

Code	Description	Last	%	Volume	MktCap
PHX	Pharmx Technologies	0.014	-62%	2,800,000	22,144,751
WML	Woomera Mining Ltd	0.0035	-42%	26,142,021	7,308,834
BP8	BPH Global Ltd	0.001	-33%	5	2,931,174
RR1	Reach Resources Ltd	0.002	-33%	306,963	9,630,891
BNL	Blue Star Helium Ltd	0.012	-29%	12,919,638	33,018,510
CCO	The Calmer Co Int	0.004	-20%	3,677,661	4,287,476
NVQ	Noviqtech Limited	0.002	-20%	2,453	3,273,613
CUS	Copper Search	0.1	-15%	228,870	10,843,535
BCT	Bluechiip Limited	0.006	-14%	486,666	5,567,617
FGL	Frugl Group Limited	0.006	-14%	1,802,400	7,291,817

Blue Star Helium (ASX:BNL) has lost ground this morning after testing at its BBB #33 well in Nevada resulted in gas to surface flow containing approximately 3.0% helium, 92.4% nitrogen and 4.6% carbon dioxide. However, the helium concentration gradually increased over the life of the test and the returning gas flow was still showing signs of ‘cleaning up’ at the end of the test.

Copper Search (ASX:CUS) has fallen on news of underwhelming assays from drilling at its Paradise Dam and Richard Dam prospects in South Australia. However, the company says it has identified significant chargeability anomaly of up to 50mV/V strength, 3km in strike to the south of a recent drilling site elsewhere within the project.