Winners Column: Here are the top 50 ASX small cap stocks for December

In December, the All Ords index – made up of the 500 largest companies on the ASX — rose 1.6 per cent.

It finished the craziest year on record* up 0.7 per cent. Remarkable.

In December, there were an incredible 29 IPOs.

Just 22 companies listed in the first nine months of the year total. All but 9 of those 29 companies have made gains on their listing price, led by Desert Metals (ASXD:DM1) – up +250 per cent.

In December, iron ore continued to blow price and demand forecasts out of the water.

And in December, forgotten sectors stirred.

Weed, crypto and battery metals – which had breakout years in 2017 but have faded badly since – are back in the hearts and minds of investors heading into 2021.

It was also a pivotal month for the re-emerging uranium sector, which hasn’t been this mainstream cool since ~2007.

HERE’S THE TOP 50 SMALL CAPS FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER >>>

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

CODE	COMPANY	DECEMBER RETURN %	PRICE	MARKET CAP	SECTOR
LCY	Legacy Iron Ore	650	0.045	$ 281,125,733.27	Resources
CPH	Creso Pharma	300	0.18	$ 126,903,315.06	Health
SHN	Sunshine Gold	265	0.062	$ 22,116,120.32	Resources
AGE	Alligator Energy	144	0.011	$ 25,893,922.56	Energy
PNN	PepinNini Minerals	136	0.39	$ 14,416,856.22	Resources
CVV	Caravel Minerals	133	0.2	$ 57,475,982.60	Resources
GWR	GWR Group	126	0.44	$ 132,753,487.68	Resources
BMN	Bannerman Resources	124	0.094	$ 101,036,093.83	Energy
AVE	Avecho Biotech	123	0.029	$ 46,367,945.72	Health
VMY	Vimy Resources	116	0.082	$ 63,850,699.66	Energy
ERA	Energy Resources	113	0.33	$ 1,218,156,455.34	Energy
SI6	SI6 Metals	107	0.028	$ 36,614,055.32	Resources
BCK	Brockman Mining	103	0.059	$ 547,474,695.73	Resources
ACS	Accent Resources	100	0.02	$ 9,320,545.66	Resources
AMT	Allegra Orthopaedics	100	0.35	$ 36,560,721.05	Health
LER	Leaf Resources	97	0.044	$ 37,318,903.51	Resources
CXO	Core Lithium	93	0.145	$ 144,685,396.55	Resources
CBE	Cobre	87	0.28	$ 18,986,447.48	Resources
AJJ	Asian Amer Medical	86	0.064	$ 22,603,929.01	Health
COB	Cobalt Blue	84	0.18	$ 43,779,932.46	Resources
MEY	Marenica Energy	82	0.155	$ 31,092,099.61	Energy
AVZ	AVZ Minerals	81	0.17	$ 487,474,746.36	Resources
KTE	K2 Energy	80	0.036	$ 10,823,657.44	Tech
ABR	American Pacific Borates	78	1.51	$ 482,697,953.69	Resources
OMH	OM Holdings	77	0.585	$ 432,094,652.15	Resources
NMR	Native Mineral Resources	77	0.425	$ 12,245,737.50	Resources
NES	Nelson Resources	72	0.1	$ 11,480,214.20	Resources
RCW	Rightcrowd	72	0.395	$ 87,755,722.47	Tech
ASM	Australian Strategic Materials	68	6.41	$ 763,109,076.98	Resources
LITCF	Lithium Australia	67	0.01	$ 1,288,610.41	Resources
SHH	Shree Minerals	67	0.02	$ 16,184,737.84	Resources
XPE	Xped	67	0.0025	$ 4,482,155.06	Tech
LIO	Lion Energy	67	0.025	$ 5,185,044.75	Energy
PDN	Paladin Energy	67	0.25	$ 510,799,409.00	Energy
DNA	Donaco International	66	0.068	$ 84,006,477.98	Consumer
HPP	Health Plant Protein	64	0.27	$ 33,161,599.26	Consumer
BDG	Black Dragon Gold	63	0.13	$ 17,465,969.56	Resources
IHR	intelliHR	62	0.485	$ 134,624,178.13	Tech
BLU	Blue Energy	61	0.087	$ 115,612,778.63	Energy
BIQ	Buildingiq	60	0.016	$ 16,719,372.51	Tech
TLT	Tilt Renewables	60	6	$ 2,261,003,304.00	Utilities
SNS	Sensen Networks	59	0.175	$ 80,667,690.60	Tech
MLX	Metals X	59	0.14	$ 127,017,249.38	Resources
MSM	MSM Corporation	59	0.065	$ 54,756,863.59	Tech
EX1	Exopharm	58	0.57	$ 79,465,790.19	Health
PM8	Pensana Rare Earths	58	1.94	$ 248,170,263.04	Resources
AKM	Aspire Mining	58	0.115	$ 58,378,253.28	Resources
OEQ	Orion Equities	56	0.125	$ 2,226,798.63	Financial
RHY	Rhythm Biosciences	56	0.875	$ 176,308,834.63	Health
VRX	VRX Silica	55	0.365	$ 183,253,772.09	Resources

Battery metals (trail)blazing

Pundits expect this new EV boom to be long and lucrative for raw materials like nickel, cobalt, lithium and graphite.

But the majority of battery metals stocks on the ASX fell away in 2019-2020 as investor sentiment soured.

It’s the ones that remain which are now in a very good position heading into 2021. A number of these stocks had a great December.

Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) has spiked +110 per cent over the past five trading days on no news (although there are rumours. DYOR pls).

The stock is now at its highest point since 2012.

When AVZ spiked in 2017/2018 it was pure investor speculation, a play on the hype surrounding the emerging, but still relatively non-existent, electric vehicle sector thematic.

This time, AVZ’s share price increase is underpinned by fundamentals. The EV industry is growing, and AVZ’s Manono project has just snared its first offtake partner.

At 16.5c per share, the stock is now at its highest point since May 2018.

Cobalt Blue (ASX:COB), one of the last remaining pure play cobalt explorers on the ASX, is planning pilot plant production for Q1 next year.

The company says it is currently working with 15 global partners who have expressed interest in receiving cobalt samples, including LG International, Mitsubishi Corporation and Sojitz Corporation.

The nuclear option

A uranium boom is well overdue, if you believe the experts.

Stockhead’s Guy Le Page predicted uranium would “be one to watch because it’s had about 13 years in the doldrums”.

The list of ASX-listed uranium explorers and miners is very short. Most of them enjoyed a big month in December.

Check out these gains:

Alligator Energy (ASX:AGE) +144%

Bannerman Resources (ASX:BMN) +124%

Vimy Resources (ASX:VMY) +116%

Energy Resources (ASX:ERA) +113%

Marenica Energy (ASX:MEY) +82%

Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) +67%

Many of these companies can ostensibly get into production quickly once prices improve to a certain level.

Bannerman’s Etango-8 project in Namibia has been ‘reimagined’ as smaller scale mine initially, but with the ability to ramp up production as demand improves.

Vimy’s main game is Mulga Rock, Australia’s largest near term uranium project.

And Paladin is a former producer at the Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia, which has been on care and maintenance but is ready to relaunch.

The company’s timetable envisages a restart of production by mid-2021, with a fairly modest capital outlay of around $80m.

Cannabis stocks: no smoke without fire

After the long (cold) cannabis winter of 2019, cannabis reform at the global level appeared to provide a huge tailwind for the ASX cannabis sector at the start of December.

The big news came from the United Nations, which formally removed cannabis from its Schedule IV classification where it had been grouped in with drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

Local markets reacted to the decision, as nine ASX cannabis stocks posted double-digit daily gains on the day of the announcement.

The sector got another boost after the US House of Representatives voted to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act — effectively decriminalising cannabis at the federal level.

The bill is unlikely to get through the Republican-controlled Senate, but that didn’t stop cannabis companies from outperforming the market with more big gains.

Standout performances included Creso Pharma (ASX:CPH), which soared 300 per cent, and Avecho Biotech (ASX AVH), up 123 per cent.

Severe iron deficiency

Iron ore price are at nine-year highs, and it looks like the run might continue for a while longer.

Punters are scrambling to get into any stock with a whiff of iron ore exposure. There are five of them in our Top 50, led by a probably very confused Legacy Iron Ore (ASX:LCY).

Legacy — which is ostensibly gold focussed — ran hard on big volumes last month for no apparent reason.

Why? With iron ore prices hitting record highs, punters may be speculating that the explorer will dust off its Mt Bevan project in WA.

Mt Bevan – besides a large, low grade magnetite resource – includes a decent chunk of Jupiter Mines’ (ASX:JMS) neighbouring high grade iron ore deposit.

Other big gainers included GWR Group (ASX:GWR), Brockman Mining (ASX:BCK), Shree Minerals (ASX:SHH) and Accent Resources (ASX:ACS).

*probs