Weekly ASX small cap wrap: ‘Biscuit diplomacy’ is now a thing

Australia, New Zealand and the UK are poised to hold free trade talks in hopes of opening up new markets to aid recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

British government analysis indicates that the value of its exports to the two countries could increase by $1.46bn from deals arising from the talks.

Exports from Australia and New Zealand could also benefit, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson singling out the iconic Tim Tam as one product that would be welcome.

“How long can the British people be deprived of the opportunity to have Arnott’s Tim Tams at a reasonable price?” Johnson said in a twitter video.

Other products spruiked by the Prime Minister include Australian wines and Vegemite (in exchange for Marmite).

With tea out of the way, here are this week’s biggest small cap movers.

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Splitit (ASX:SPT) +219%

The buy now, pay later platform is a market darling  after signing a “multi-year” partnership deal with global payments company Mastercard.

Splitit will integrate with Mastercard’s technology to help merchants deliver seamless and secure consumer payments, in store and online.

The partnership will launch pilots across three markets with plans to roll out globally.

Metals Australia (ASX:MLS) +100%

Shares in Metals Australia make significant gains this week after the company delivered a high-grade maiden resource for its Lac Rainy graphite project in Quebec of 13.3 million tonnes grading 11.5 per cent total graphitic carbon.

The company noted that the resource outcrops at surface with 90 per cent of the resource defined within the first 100m.

Just 1.6km of the 4km of strike along the Main Carheil graphitic trend has been tested with planning underway for extensional drilling.

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for June 12 – June 19 [intraday]:

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ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Cellmid (ASX:CDY) -38%

Shares in Cellmid fell after the company released a report on testing of the Wondfo SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) test kit by the Doherty Institute for the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

The TGA testing found that the Wondfo kit’s sensitivity at all time points was 68.6 per cent, well below the 86.4 per cent sensitivity in clinical testing.

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for June 12 – June 19 [intraday]:

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