The S&P/ASX Emerging Companies (XEC) index was up about 0.5% at 3pm in Sydney on Friday, but our brave little Caboose is about 2.1% lower for the week.

Meanwhile, the ASX 200, is down about 0.6%. Over the last five days, it’s gained 0.5%, but is now 2.60% down for the year to date.

That midweek escalation of tensions in the Crimea just hoovered up confidence,  leaving all kinds of fears of an economic conflagration and – even more awful – an accentuation of persistent global inflationary pressures.

And all this – just as we were trying to wrap our heads around what’s certain to be perplexing new set of cash-rate policy positions out of the US Fed, the RBA , the ECB and the contrarians at the RBNZ.

But in China…

…inflation is soft and cuddly… cuddly enough for the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) to be loosening monetary policy while everyone else be tightening.

From Singapore, IG’s Jun Rong Yeap says, “uncertainty over a potential invasion will be sufficient to keep market participants shunning risk assets, while flocking to safe-havens.”

And gold prices are looking comfy at eight-month highs.

“The attempt by equity bulls to reclaim the 200-day MA for the S&P 500 has been unsuccessful, with the recent sell-off wiping out Tuesday’s gains, ” Jun says.

So it’s a new ball game for global markets – with another extra layer of volatility underpinning markets which now appear tethered to an impenetrably grave and unhappy news cycle.

And as we saw late yesterday, wild headlines can swing sentiment wildly – although, in age of disinformation, it’s always best to fact check any Ukrainian invasions of Russia, especially when it’s reported by the Russian-controlled news agency RIA Novosti.

 

Upcoming IPO’s for this month

Catalano Seafood (ASX:CSF)

Listing: 24 February

IPO: $6m at $0.20

The seafood processor, wholesaler, retailer and exporter has plans to expand its distribution network, aiming to roll out its Seafood Management Solution to supermarkets.

Along with increasing its sales and marketing capabilities, the company will also use the funds to upgrade processing equipment.

Omnia Metals Group (ASX:OM1)

Listing: 21 February

IPO: $5.5m at $0.20

The explorer will be focused on two projects, the Ord Basin project along the WA/NT border, and the Albany-Fraser project in the state’s southwest.

The company says meaningful exploration around the Ord Basin has been limited over the past 50 years, so the project represents “a district scale, greenfields exploration opportunity for copper, nickel and PGE deposit types.”

At the Albany-Fraser project, Omnia plans to leverage historical data to explore for intrusive-hosted nickel-copper sulphide deposits.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS:

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for February 14 – 18:

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

Code Company Price % Week Market Cap
GCR Golden Cross 0.22 1057.9% $2,084,787
HOR Horseshoe Metals Ltd 0.034 183.3% $6,545,915
ANL Amani Gold Ltd 0.0015 50.0% $34,400,162
PBX Pacific Bauxite Ltd 0.15 50.0% $1,189,876
LKO Lakes Blue Energy 0.0015 50.0% $86,540,353
ITM Itech Minerals Ltd 0.56 47.4% $45,577,498
BRX Belararoxlimited 0.545 47.3% $14,731,610
QGL Quantum Graphite 0.365 46.0% $101,085,000
IS3 I Synergy Group Ltd 0.13 44.4% $21,126,143
HVM Happy Valley 0.084 40.0% $18,490,071
PG1 Pearl Global Ltd 0.028 40.0% $18,265,511
BOC Bougainville Copper 0.56 40.0% $224,595,000
NET Netlinkz Limited 0.022 37.5% $75,052,687
IHL Incannex Healthcare 0.59 34.1% $725,116,802
BNR Bulletin Res Ltd 0.165 32.0% $51,400,784
FXG Felix Gold Limited 0.18 28.6% $13,697,632
RNX Renegade Exploration 0.009 28.6% $6,597,200
SIS Simble Solutions 0.027 28.6% $9,879,318
HPR High Peak Royalties 0.051 27.5% $10,447,820
TMK Tamaska Oil Gas Ltd 0.014 27.3% $31,680,000
ARE Argonaut Resources 0.005 25.0% $12,621,717
EDU EDU Holdings Limited 0.2 25.0% $19,977,456
ARC ARC Funds Limited 0.735 24.6% $21,053,446
BRV Big River Gold Ltd 0.295 22.9% $66,063,500
AVR Anteris Technologies 22.74 22.7% $253,899,182
TYM Tymlez Group 0.038 22.6% $37,500,358
DTM Dart Mining NL 0.1 22.0% $10,706,220
ALA Arovella Therapeutic 0.051 21.4% $25,849,497
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Golden Cross (ASX:GCR) the formerly sleepy copper explorer is out of suspension and madly up 1058% for the week after completing a $1.5m cap raise and satisfying the ASX’s conditions of reinstatement.

Horseshoe Metals (ASX:HOR) – like Golden Cross – is back on the playing field after a lengthy suspension and – with a capital raise of well over $2 million – the copper-gold explorer is up over 180% this week and good to go. It’s JV with Kopore Metals (ASX:KPT) at the Horseshoe Lights Mine is looking good, after KPT successfully met its first year minimum spend earlier this month.

Lakes Blue Energy (ASX:LKO) took off on Wednesday after announcing a positive drilling update to its Wellesley-2 Well in Queensland’s Surat Basin. The energy play is 50% up since Monday.

And Argonaut (ASX:ARE) says the Zambian Government is finally investigating the nixing of its lucrative copper-cobalt Lumwana West exploration licence. It’s up 25% this week.  In January, Zambian officials unexpectedly canceled ARE’s  exploration license.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for February 14 – 18:

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

Code Company Price % Week Market Cap
ZBT Zebit Inc. 0.075 -61.5% $7,476,182
MRI My Rewards International 0.089 -55.5% $12,773,639
BAS Bass Oil Ltd 0.001 -50.0% $9,225,363
CAQ CAQ Holdings Ltd 0.013 -48.0% $9,331,222
PPS Praemium Limited 0.845 -33.5% $426,559,857
GMN Gold Mountain Ltd 0.0115 -32.4% $12,841,790
HLF Halo Food Co. Ltd 0.09 -30.8% $26,313,262
ADV Ardiden Ltd 0.012 -29.4% $28,188,360
LBY Laybuy Group Holding 0.1 -28.6% $24,717,462
MLSDA Metals Australia 0.043 -28.3% $11,000,970
OAK Oakridge 0.215 -28.3% $3,611,093
TRT Todd River Res Ltd 0.056 -27.3% $31,980,622
BBX BBX Minerals Ltd 0.125 -26.5% $66,703,114
CRM Carbon Minerals Ltd 0.31 -26.2% $5,829,083
KLI Killiresources 0.39 -25.7% $13,695,000
SPX Spenda Limited 0.026 -25.7% $79,235,611
BLZ Blaze Minerals Ltd 0.036 -25.0% $13,227,504
EN1 Engage:Bdr Limited 0.0015 -25.0% $3,502,636
JAV Javelin Minerals Ltd 0.0015 -25.0% $13,176,506
PCH Property Connect 0.0015 -25.0% $1,028,795
SGQ St George Min Ltd 0.048 -25.0% $27,691,974
WOO Wooboard Tech Ltd 0.0015 -25.0% $7,644,325
YPB YPB Group Ltd 0.0015 -25.0% $9,176,751
1MC Morella Corporation 0.021 -25.0% $113,876,708
ROG Red Sky Energy. 0.006 -25.0% $37,115,590
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Zebit (ASX:ZEB)  recommenced trading this week, but probably shouldn’t have after initially flagging plans to delist.

The stock promptly slumped to and is currently turning hands at a discount of 95% from its October 2020 IPO price, when it raised $35m from investors.

Newly-listed employee and consumer rewards, loyalty and engagement program platform provider My Rewards (ASX:MRI) is also down after its recent IPO.

The firm runs a cloud-based, e-commerce platform where members access exclusive discounts and such. MRI says it’s hooked up some 4.5 million members with clients like Telstra and Ramsay Health.

Just a few hot days after listing on the ASX, and  raising $6m at $0.20 the rare earths and gold specialist Killi Resources (ASX:KLI) has come steadily back to common earth this week, shedding 26% despite starting a district-wide geochemical evaluation of its WA tenement package.