• ASX Emerging Companies index XEC fell 1.5% this week
  • Meteoric Resources Lives up to its name with cracking Rare Earth numbers (REE) out of Brazil
  • Energy Sector wins 2022

This is where we’re leaving the Aussie benchmark for micro-cap companies, the S&P/ASX Emerging Companies (XEC) in 2022.

A mighty volatile, yet impressively steady descent.

Via Market Index 

It’s not been an easy run, down 1.5% this week, adding to a bad month and a 2022 worth cremating.

Via Market Index 

 

Once again, while sectors like Utilities, Materials, Health and Consumer stocks retreated on the benchmark ASX 200 (XJO), the only show of defiance came out of the Energy Sector, led by the old school producers.

This is the year energy stocks have had:

The XEJ is up more than 1% since Monday morning, ending a year where it performed like a God’s first ever test run of the miraculous Atlantic salmon.

Via Market Index

Weekly economic overview

Once more unto the breach went equities during a week of light Christmas volumes across developed markets.

Global indices largely retreated over the last week as the big name central banks went more hawkish than expected fueling to recession fears along with weak economic data. The week before the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BoE) clipped hope as was their aim, so when the Bank of Japan made sure that didn’t happen.

For the week Chinese shares were fairly insulated, down about 1%. Despite the shock announcement from a BoJ most of thought was actually just an empty building with a nice facade, Japanese shares barely registered a sweat, down 1.2%.

In the US shares fell harder, short 2.2%, after Tesla shed another bunch –  9.2% on Friday to $124.86 – that’s the EV hero’s worst score since September 2020.

The news is just all bad over in the House of Musk – the boss is distracted, the team is missing production targets, they’re slashing the price ($US7,500 discounts) on its formerly inaccessible fleet as sales drop, while a gargantuan 8 car pile up involving a self-driving Tesla all make for bad driving ahead.

EU markets shed 3.2%, I’m in France and I can tell you no-one seems to mind.

However, the negative global sentiment has been hitting home. The All Ords pulled back by 1% this week. Aussie bond yields fell as they did in the states and Europe, but again…

Elsewhere, commodity prices were mixed with energy doing good and iron ore and metals doing bad. The Aussie dollar didn’t do much other than decline a wee bit against a stagnant USD.

Back to the BoJ though, all 47 economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected yield-curve consistency. All 47 were proven wrong by the surprise hike. And since then, core Japanese consumer prices are rising at their fastest rate since about 1980, with energy pushing inflation up 3.7% for November year-on-year.

And that’s why I only listen to myself and Taylor Swift.

 

ASX IPOs this week:

SOCO CORPORATION (ASX:SOC)

Listing: 23 December

IPO: $5m at $0.20

One lonely IPO is left before Christmas and it’s done pretty damn well.

Via IG Markets

SOCO Corporation is an Aussie-based IT consultancy, specialising in the delivery of cloud solutions, business applications and integration projects – with a particular focus on Microsoft solutions.

The company’s key target markets include federal government, local and state government, along with large corporates.

The offer was well oversubscribed, raising a total of $5M at $0.20 per share for an indicative market capitalisation of $25.3M. The IPO attracted strong support from institutional and retail investors. This included significant take-up from SOCO’s employees, further solidifying alignment towards SOCO’s continuing success.

There was no sell-down as part of the IPO, with SOCO’s founding team retaining a 79.2% shareholding and electing to voluntarily escrow 100% of their holding for 12-months from listing.

The IPO represents SOCO’s first ever external capital raising since its founding nine years ago. The only tradable shares will be those issued at the IPO.

 

TAITON RESOURCES (ASX:T88)

This explorer listed on Monday with its fully underwritten IPO raising $7 million to conduct exploration activities for its three projects.

The company is focused predominantly on gold and polymetallic, and has three projects including the Highway and Challenger Westin projects in South Australia and Lake Barlee in Western Australia.

“Our exploration plans have started, and we are wasting no time in getting the planning ready for more intense exploration activities in the coming 2023,” MD Noel Ong said.

The Highway hosts major IOCG (iron oxide copper gold) deposits including Olympic Dam, Carrapateena and Prominent Hill.

The Olympic Dam deposit, discovered by Western Mining back in 1975, is considered one of the world’s largest iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposits and the fourth largest copper deposit globally. It’s located roughly 350m below the surface.

Rigorous geophysics programs have provided compelling evidence for not only an extension to the OME Domain, but also that Merino Prospect itself is likely a shallow hydrothermal system, i.e. by way of the zircon isotope analyses.

Notably, the evaluation of the data shows that Merino is potentially tapping the source rocks that feed the Olympic Dam IOCG Belt.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS:

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for December 19 to 23

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

Code Company Price % Week Market Cap
MEI Meteoric Resources 0.053 231% $79,367,463
KDY Kaddy Limited 0.072 157% $9,489,222
SKN Skin Elements Ltd 0.0165 83% $7,924,293
NGY Nuenergy Gas Ltd 0.032 78% $35,542,932
PXX Polarx Limited 0.019 58% $25,705,991
3DA Amaero International 0.16 45% $70,628,236
PLG Pearlgullironlimited 0.031 42% $1,701,972
DCX Discovex Res Ltd 0.0035 40% $11,558,988
TEG Triangle Energy Ltd 0.021 40% $29,579,874
AVE Avecho Biotech Ltd 0.015 36% $23,892,301
ARE Argonaut Resources 0.002 33% $12,723,743
AUK Aumake Limited 0.004 33% $3,497,788
CT1 Constellation Tech 0.004 33% $5,884,801
KEY KEY Petroleum 0.002 33% $3,935,856
MGG Mogul Games Grp Ltd 0.002 33% $6,526,882
VIP VIP Gloves 0.004 33% $3,933,907
BBX BBX Minerals Ltd 0.091 32% $41,371,325
SIX Sprintex Ltd 0.04 29% $10,937,236
LME Limeade Inc. 0.25 28% $64,042,018
NSX NSX Limited 0.055 28% $16,241,139
FXG Felix Gold Limited 0.115 28% $9,148,304
WMG Western Mines 0.165 27% $7,591,013
MCE Matrix C & E Ltd 0.285 27% $42,360,714
NWE Norwest Energy NL 0.057 27% ##########
BOC Bougainville Copper 0.35 25% ##########
CAV Carnavale Resources 0.005 25% $13,667,759
MTL Mantle Minerals Ltd 0.0025 25% $13,364,013
TD1 Tali Digital Limited 0.0025 25% $4,205,268
AS2 Askarimetalslimited 0.415 24% $18,748,866
C1X Cosmosexploration 0.21 24% $4,750,000
IMB Intelligent Monitor 0.16 23% $20,912,047
PRN Perenti Limited 1.31 23% ##########
RHT Resonance Health 0.06 22% $27,651,119
CBL Control Bionics 0.165 22% $15,381,435
TYM Tymlez Group 0.022 22% $19,494,412
CYM Cyprium Metals Ltd 0.097 21% $67,178,244
H2G Greenhy2 Limited 0.04 21% $15,493,966
SRX Sierra Rutile 0.23 21% $93,332,018
TNT Tesserent Limited 0.115 21% ##########
MRM MMAOffShor 0.95 21% ##########
HVY Heavymineralslimited 0.145 21% $4,244,378
APS Allup Silica Ltd 0.09 20% $3,462,939
BUX Buxton Resources Ltd 0.12 20% $17,115,292
CHK Cohiba Min Ltd 0.006 20% $9,765,965
GTG Genetic Technologies 0.003 20% $27,701,895
ICN Icon Energy Limited 0.006 20% $3,840,068
OMA Omegaoilgaslimited 0.18 20% $21,827,071
PUA Peak Minerals Ltd 0.006 20% $6,248,225
RAN Range International 0.006 20% $5,635,742
DUG DUG Tech 0.625 19% $67,330,330
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Goodness me it’s the right time to have some REE up your sleeve.

Living up to its name and then some, Meteoric Resources’ (ASX:MEI) gained about 230% this week, with news that the new Caldeira project does indeed contain ionic adsorption clay REEs.

“These results show a considerable portion of the target REEs are adsorbed onto clays allowing for recovery by a simple washing process, unlike the case for many REE projects, where the REEs are tightly bound within the mineral lattice or are even in colloidal suspension requiring a much more intensive treatment process,” MEI reported.

Merry Xmas.

 

 

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for December 19 to 23

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

Code Company Price % Week Market Cap
SRJ SRJ Technologies 0.1 -77% $10,701,030
BWX BWX Limited 0.16 -75% $36,997,688
APL Associate Global 0.24 -45% $11,569,413
EPY Earlypay Ltd 0.2 -40% $92,777,181
SYM Symbio Holdings Ltd 1.53 -40% ##########
FHS Freehill Mining Ltd. 0.005 -38% $11,561,093
PRM Prominence Energy 0.001 -33% $2,424,609
RMY RMA Global 0.09 -33% $47,967,611
BNO Bionomics Limited 0.036 -31% $54,343,211
CCX City Chic Collective 0.455 -31% ##########
29M 29Metalslimited 1.79 -30% ##########
INF Infinity Lithium 0.105 -30% $50,885,130
SNX Sierra Nevada Gold 0.21 -30% $10,406,966
BMO Bastion Minerals 0.031 -30% $3,567,164
LVT Livetiles Limited 0.027 -29% $31,414,971
IXU Ixup Limited 0.028 -28% $30,887,159
KGD Kula Gold Limited 0.023 -26% $7,946,662
PBH Pointsbet Holdings 1.345 -26% ##########
ADY Admiralty Resources. 0.006 -25% $7,821,475
AYM Australia United Min 0.003 -25% $5,527,732
DDT DataDot Technology 0.006 -25% $8,707,086
GLV Global Oil & Gas 0.0015 -25% $4,017,407
HPC Thehydration 0.09 -25% $13,164,530
SHO Sportshero Ltd 0.015 -25% $9,686,504
XST Xstate Resources 0.0015 -25% $6,430,363
HMY Harmoney Corp Ltd 0.41 -24% $41,637,791
EQE Equus Mining Ltd 0.072 -23% $13,977,931
99L 99 Loyalty Ltd. 0.01 -23% $11,596,828
AD1 AD1 Holdings Limited 0.01 -23% $7,708,044
NET Netlinkz Limited 0.017 -23% $64,490,829
GCM Green Critical Min 0.017 -23% $17,486,615
SER Strategic Energy 0.014 -22% $4,154,412
TKL Traka Resources 0.007 -22% $4,821,422
VML Vital Metals Limited 0.018 -22% ##########
ARN Aldoro Resources 0.18 -22% $20,888,779
AWJ Auric Mining 0.063 -21% $6,569,124
1AE Auroraenergymetals 0.15 -21% $21,034,462
HFY Hubify Ltd 0.03 -21% $18,357,043
OSX Osteopore Limited 0.15 -21% $17,590,236
INR Ioneer Ltd 0.375 -21% ##########
GRL Godolphin Resources 0.079 -21% $9,469,556
TOU Tlou Energy Ltd 0.034 -21% $25,264,123
HIQ Hitiq Limited 0.027 -21% $6,069,494
MIO Macarthur Minerals 0.135 -21% $23,191,488
TTM Titan Minerals 0.074 -20% ##########
AQX Alice Queen Ltd 0.002 -20% $4,400,500
MXO Motio Ltd 0.04 -20% $8,627,344
OEQ Orion Equities 0.12 -20% $1,877,907
OPN Oppenneg 0.08 -20% $12,220,763
PNX PNX Metals Limited 0.004 -20% $17,776,231
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