In 1964, a humble antiques dealer spent £5 on a crusty old chess piece, put it a drawer and promptly forgot about it.

It turns out this battered warrior is part of a famous medieval chess set that had been missing for almost 200 years. This £5 purchase has just a sold at auction for £735,000, or $1.3m.

The piece is part of a set known as the Lewis Chessmen that was made from walrus ivory in the late 12th or early 13th century.

But after looking after it for more than 50 years (or rather didn’t know it existed) the antiques dealer’s family were “quite amazed” by its value.

And speaking of surprise valuables:

ASX small cap winners: July 1-5

NeuroScientific Biopharmaceuticals (ASX:NSB) was up 124 per cent for the week after claiming an Alzheimer’s breakthrough.

The company’s EmtinB drug demonstrated the “largest ever improvement in neurite growth and increased number of active connections between nerve cells”, it says.

NSB shares went on a massive tear, up as much as 186 per cent to 40c on the news. However, trials are only at the pre-clinical stage, with in-human trials “to be initiated this quarter”.

In May, (very) diverse micro-cap explorer Greenpower Energy (ASX:GPP) entered an agreement to potentially buy the historic gold mines of Camel Creek, Golden Cup and Big Rush in Northern Queensland

On Thursday, it announced a very handy near-surface exploration target of 32,154oz-112,540oz of gold at the Camel Creek mine – which sent the stock up 111 per cent.

Medtech play Medibio (ASX:MEB) climbed over 110 per cent after signing on British food service conglomerate Compass Group to the pilot program for its corporate mental health app, ilumen.

Kyckr (ASX:KYK) also scored a commercial partnership with the Singapore division of global insurer AXA Insurance, sending the regtech stock up 97 per cent for the week.

And shares in internet-of-things company Connected IO (ASX:CIO)  got a boost after it announced a new personal best for quarterly cash receipts.

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for July 1-5:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Ticker Name Price last Friday Price this Friday % Return Market Cap
NSB NEUROSCIENTIFIC BIOPHARMACEUTICALS 0.145 0.350 124 $23,913,692.00
SIV SILVER CHEF 0.310 0.670 119 $26,702,182.00
MEB MEDIBIO 0.009 0.019 111 $4,727,228.50
GPP GREENPOWER ENERGY 0.001 0.002 100 $3,886,414.25
EER EAST ENERGY RESOURCES 0.002 0.004 100 $12,803,948.00
KYK KYCKR 0.033 0.060 97 $9,812,718.00
NXE NEW ENERGY MINERALS 0.014 0.025 86 $3,923,281.50
CY5 CYGNUS GOLD 0.025 0.045 72 $2,609,383.75
CAE CANNINDAH RESOURCES 0.009 0.015 67 $2,717,789.25
CIO CONNECTED IO 0.003 0.005 67 $9,065,425.00
CZL CONSOLIDATED ZINC 0.008 0.012 62 $15,303,418.00
TAS TASMAN RESOURCES 0.036 0.058 58 $30,085,008.00
VKA VIKING MINES 0.009 0.014 56 $4,392,050.00
MDI MIDDLE ISLAND RESOURCES 0.005 0.007 56 $7,327,965.00
HCT HOLISTA COLLTECH 0.042 0.063 50 $14,744,462.00
RAG RAGNAR METALS 0.004 0.060 50 $1,880,544.38
UTR ULTRACHARGE 0.002 0.003 50 $3,220,141.75
TMX TERRAIN MINERALS 0.002 0.003 50 $1,931,196.00
SYT SYNTONIC 0.002 0.003 50 $9,864,863.00
CLZ CLASSIC MINERALS 0.001 0.002 50 $4,508,580.00
OEX OILEX 0.002 0.003 50 $7,761,954.00
FRX FLEXIROAM 0.012 0.018 50 $4,357,502.00
UUV UUV AQUABOTIX 0.006 0.009 50 $2,924,438.25
Wordpress Table Plugin

ASX small cap losers: July 1-5

SpeedCast International (ASX:SDA) took another massive hit following an earnings cut.

It blamed a raft of reasons from NBN delays, customer churn in one industry, technical problems with a big contract, and social unrest in Mozambique.

At $1.80 a share, it has lost 73 per cent since late August 2018 (when it was $6.65). Ouch.

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for July 1-5:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Ticker Name Price Last Friday Price This Friday Return % Market Cap
CGS COGSTATE 0.194 0.155 -21 $18,475,410.00
FDM FREEDOM OIL AND GAS 0.028 0.023 -21 $24,771,518.00
MGU MAGNUM MINING AND EXPLORATION 0.082 0.065 -21 $17,893,044.00
SIH SIHAYO GOLD 0.014 0.011 -21 $25,496,110.00
OBM ORA BANDA MINING 0.16 0.13 -22 $60,714,996.00
BCB BOWEN COKING COAL 0.05 0.039 -22 $27,562,636.00
IVO INVIGOR GROUP 0.0045 0.004 -22 $10,001,031.00
MAG MAGMATIC RESOURCES 0.018 0.014 -22 $1,641,396.00
REZ RESOURCES & ENERGY 0.065 0.05 -23 $15,111,103.00
SGC SACGASCO 0.017 0.014 -24 $3,448,652.25
TPC TPC CONSOLIDATED 0.4 0.3 -25 $3,370,684.00
OKU OKLO RESOURCES 0.15 0.115 -25 $39,921,180.00
AIS AERIS RESOURCES 0.066 0.05 -27 $21,874,158.00
FTC FINTECH CHAIN 0.14 0.11 -28 $68,330,808.00
ADA ADACEL TECHNOLOGIES 0.595 0.43 -28 $32,787,218.00
OAR OAKDALE RESOURCES 0.014 0.01 -29 $2,083,553.63
SUR SUN RESOURCES 0.0015 0.001 -33 $881,057.56
TSC TWENTY SEVEN CO 0.003 0.002 -33 $1,962,122.63
LRS LATIN RESOURCES 0.0015 0.001 -33 $3,892,466.50
IAM INTIGER GROUP 0.0015 0.001 -33 $1,677,895.88
QGL QUANTUM GRAPHITE 0.003 0.002 -33 $15,321,162.00
CEL CHALLENGER EXPLORATION 0.055 0.032 -42 $14,897,924.00
SDA SPEEDCAST INTERNATIONAL 3.48 1.8 -46 $453,110,976.00
AJC ACACIA COAL 0.002 0.001 -50 $4,067,651.75
MLS METALS AUSTRALIA 0.002 0.002 -50 $2,927,197.75
PCL PANCONTINENTAL OIL & GAS 0.002 0.001 -50 $5,406,715.50
MCX MARINER CORP 0.047 0.02 -57 $274,761.63
Wordpress Table Plugin

Featured Companies

You might be interested in