Weekly ASX small cap wrap: Sea of red as uncertainty rules

Australian stocks are drowning in a sea of red amidst lingering uncertainty sparked cash-strapped Chinese property giant Evergrande and concerns about rising inflation.

The ASX 200 is down 2.36% this week to 7,169.8 points, thanks to a big dip today as investors fled for safe harbours after Evergrande missed a second deadline to pay over US$180m of interest to foreign investors.

Gold companies saw marked gains with shares in Evolution Mining climbing 2.44% this morning to $3.58, while Silver Lake rose nearly 4% to $1.39.

Investors in energy stocks are also likely to be feeling a little relieved this week as the S&P/ASX 200 Energy Index is still up 3.99%.despite some sharp falls today.

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for September 24 – October 1 [intraday]:

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Bass Oil (ASX:BAS) +150%

Bass is moving to investigate the use of carbon capture, use and storage for its Cooper Basin oil and gas assets to minimise its carbon footprint.

This follows the federal government backed Santos’ and Oil Search’s $210m Moomba CCS project with a $15m grant.

It noted that most of the gas produced from the Cooper Basin required the removal of carbon dioxide, which can be reinjected to increase reservoir pressure and increase recoveries.

Opportunities to deploy solar and battery technology to replace its reliance on diesel/crude powered generators will also be investigated.

Red Dirt Metals (ASX:RDT) +117%

Shares in Red Dirt soared after the company announced that it had identified the potential for lithium whilst undertaking due diligence of the recently acquired Mt Ida project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region.

It noted that its technical team had observed that multiple high-grade lithium intervals had been intersected within pegmatite bodies on the western contact of the main Mt Ida granite intrusive.

To date, 44 drill holes have been identified that have been logged with pegmatite occurrences or have been assayed incidentally for lithium as part of a multi-element analysis.

Tuas (ASX:TUA) +59%

Telecommunications provider Tuas has seen its shares climb this week after reporting a month on month increase in revenue by S$30m ($30.6m) to S$34.3m.

The company, which counts former TPG chairman David Teoh as its executive chairman, added that its operating arm TPG Singapore had tripled its paid subscriptions from 133,000 on 4 September 2020 to 392,000 on 31 July 2021.

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for September 24 – October 1 [intraday]:

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FYI Resources (ASX:FYI) -30%

Investors appeared to be unhappy that FYI’s binding agreement with Alcoa would see the mining giant take up more than 50% of the joint venture high purity alumina refining project.

This was despite Alcoa agreeing to pay the lion’s share of the demonstration and production facility construction costs.