• ASX higher with small caps leading way up 1.76% in the past five days
  • Jindalee Resources spinout Dynamic Metals lists on ASX 
  • Graphite explorer Lincoln Resources is back trading on the ASX following its 2020 suspension

 

By 4pm (AEDT) on Friday the S&P/ASX Emerging Companies index  (XEC) —  a benchmark for Australia’s micro-cap companies — was up 1.92% for the past five days and, in a positive sign, has risen 7.55% in the past month.

The Benchmark S&P/ASX 200 — home to the the top 200 ASX listed companies by float-adjusted market cap — is up 2.42% for the past five days and 4.52% for the month.

All 11 sectors were in the green, except utilities, which dropped 1.65% for the past five days. Leading the winners was healthcare, up 4.8% which makes Morgan’s Scott Power happy. Energy rose 2.42%, while consumer staples rose 2.35%.

Weekly economic overview

There’s been a fair bit of key economic data out this week in Australia, and also globally. Here’s a quick recap:

The US jobs market remains hot with first-time claims for weekly jobless benefits in the US dropping by 15k to 190k, the lowest levels since September. Meanwhile, the Aussie jobs market is softening ever so slightly with unemployment rate up from 3.4% to 3.5% in December, reducing the possibility of a steep RBA rate hike even further.

US retails sales for December dropped 1.1% – worse than the expected fall of 0.9% – marking the biggest drop in 12 months.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) decided to maintain its dovish policy with no change to its yield curve control policy and keeping its key rates unchanged.

China’s economy or GDP grew by just 2.9% in the October – December period, the second slowest pace since the 1970s.Chinese retail sales also fell 1.8%, but was much better than expectations of a 9% fall.

And Australia’s monthly inflation gauge show prices have eased to a four-month low of +0.2% in December from November. On a year-on-year basis however, this measure is still at a +7.3% rate, but the lower month-on-month result should give the RBA some comfort going into February’s meeting.

 

ASX IPOs this week

Dynamic Metals (ASX:DYM)

Listed: January 16

IPO: $7m at 20 cents/share.

The Jindalee Resources (ASX:JRL) spinout traded down 2.5% at 19 cents/share at close on its first day, dropped to 17.5 cents at one stage during the week, before bouncing back to its listing price of 20 cents.

DYM’s flagship project Widgiemooltha covers ~880km2  between Norseman and Kambalda in WA.

The region is well-known for its numerous nickel and gold mines, but more recently has emerged in significance for its lithium prospectivity.

RC drilling is planned at Widgiemooltha to target nickel, with regional mapping and sampling planned to generate lithium targets.

 

ASX Small cap winners:

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for January 16-20:

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

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Leading the gainers this week was Adelong Gold (ASX:ADG) which bolted by a full 142% Tuesday morn after a follow-up drilling program at Gibraltar turned up a solid set of hits, like 3m at 12.57g/t Au from 20 metres, including 1m at 34.6g/t.

$8m capped Adelong may still be but a minnow on the market, but that’s a thumper of a daily gain and deserves a round of applause.

It is now in a trading halt pending a cap raise announcement.

In number two spot for the week is graphite explorer Lincoln Minerals (ASX:LML), which came back from the dead and relisted today.

Its flagship is the Kookaburra Gully graphite project in South Australia, where the company will be focused on predevelopment drilling.

“The Lincoln Minerals refreshed board and management team brings a new passion to our Company and the diverse set of skills needed to build LML into a premier graphite producer and generate value for all our stakeholders,” the company said in December.

“Future graphite production from the Kookaburra Gully Project may also pave the way for LML to increase the scope of its business by exploring value-add opportunities for the graphite it produces.”

 

ASX Small cap losers:

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for January 16-20:

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

WordPress Tables Plugin

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