ASX Small Caps Weekly Wrap: Make it stop, please… I want to get off Mr Bones’ Wild Ride

Despite a horror Friday, the market managed a win this week.

Pic via Getty Images

Ooof. It’s Friday afternoon, and there’s no way I can go any further without pointing out how relentlessly brutal today’s sell-off was.

• The ASX 200 made decent ground despite Friday’s bloodbath
• Real Estate and InfoTech led the way, each for their own weird reason
• Who won the Small Caps race? Read on to find out…

The ASX 200 benchmark plunged like a maniacal plumber at a plugged-up dunny convention, and it was about as un-fun as… well, as a plugged-up dunny convention could be.

On a normal week, a 2.11% fall on Friday would be enough to wipe away all the gains since Monday morning, and then some.

But this week wasn’t ordinary – and despite the gruesome fall today, overall the ASX ended the week looking pretty bloody shiny, all things considered.

There was a lot happening around the place while the market lurched from high to low, like an unmedicated monster in search of somewhere to drop its bundle.

The highlight – not the right word, I know – was the implosion of Regional Express.

I had planned to pick that apart in a bit of detail this afternoon, but time and circumstance means that might have to wait until next week – but in the meantime, there are some takeaway points that really do need to be considered.

The main one being: “Just how badly broken is the Australian airline industry, really?”

It’s only been a couple of months since Bonza went belly up, and this isn’t Rex’s first rodeo when it comes to flirting with being mortally wounded.

And the Aussie airline industry is littered with the empty husks of other little airlines that came, tried their best against (and even alongside) Qantas, only to fall in an inglorious heap of feathers, bones and bad debt.

Something’s going to have to give. How that shakes out is anyone’s guess, but I can tell you one thing.

There’s a chipper little Irish fella who is most probably on a European beach somewhere right now, thanking his lucky charms that he’s not in the hotseat at the Flying Kangaroo anymore.

Anyway – here’s what else happened this week:

WHAT THE SECTORS DID

Via Marketindex

Here’s what the market sectors did:

Via Marketindex

Real Estate and InfoTech led the winners among the sectors this week – the former proving once again that slow’n’steady can win you the race, while the latter proved my personal theory that there’s an element of luck to this whole share-trading malarkey, and you could be forgiven for thinking that if they wore suits to watch the dishlickers race at Dapto, you’d be hard pressed telling that apart from the ASX some days.

Tellingly, though, the usual ASX indices that make out like bandits when things are as volatile as they have been this week, somehow didn’t.

The banks came in last place, and the goldies lost ground over the course of the week, which I actually found surprising when I checked the results this afternoon.

Anyway… take it all in, because it’s time to hit “reset” and do it all again next week.

Via Marketindex

THIS WEEK’S ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best-performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Code	Company	Price	% Week	Market Cap
CNJ	Conico Ltd	0.002	100%	$2,201,528
IEC	Intra Energy Corp	0.002	100%	$3,381,563
APX	Appen Limited	0.76	77%	$173,941,282
AME	Alto Metals Limited	0.057	73%	$23,810,265
JAY	Jayride Group	0.012	71%	$2,835,709
NAG	Nagambie Resources	0.012	71%	$9,559,628
AIV	Activex Limited	0.008	60%	$1,724,021
BEZ	Besra Gold	0.086	59%	$36,374,779
AAJ	Aruma Resources Ltd	0.017	55%	$3,544,047
AD1	AD1 Holdings Limited	0.009	50%	$8,087,835
AHN	Athena Resources	0.006	50%	$6,422,805
EEL	Enrg Elements Ltd	0.003	50%	$3,029,895
RIL	Redivium Limited	0.003	50%	$8,192,564
TD1	Tali Digital Limited	0.0015	50%	$4,942,733
PKD	Parkd Ltd	0.028	47%	$2,912,389
OSL	Oncosil Medical	0.013	44%	$52,976,334
HCT	Holista CollTech Ltd	0.01	43%	$1,951,600
BEL	Bentley Capital Ltd	0.017	42%	$1,294,175
EVG	Evion Group NL	0.028	40%	$9,714,969
VAR	Variscan Mines Ltd	0.007	40%	$2,996,003
TKM	Trek Metals Ltd	0.04	38%	$18,485,023
KAI	Kairos Minerals Ltd	0.011	38%	$26,209,122
SPA	Spacetalk Ltd	0.026	37%	$9,420,428
BUR	Burley Minerals	0.135	35%	$20,300,077
APC	Aust Potash Ltd	0.002	33%	$8,140,379
DOU	Douugh Limited	0.004	33%	$4,328,276
ENT	Enterprise Metals	0.004	33%	$4,373,269
INP	Incentiapay Ltd	0.004	33%	$4,975,720
KPO	Kalina Power Limited	0.004	33%	$9,945,576
SLZ	Sultan Resources Ltd	0.008	33%	$1,580,692
SRY	Story-I Limited	0.004	33%	$1,505,619
TFL	Tasfoods Ltd	0.02	33%	$8,741,910
BSA	BSA Limited	0.955	33%	$75,407,372
AYA	Artryalimited	0.33	32%	$25,972,318
BTN	Butn Limited	0.06	30%	$16,760,674
QML	Qmines Limited	0.052	30%	$11,945,830
MAG	Magmatic Resrce Ltd	0.066	29%	$27,525,347
IPB	IPB Petroleum Ltd	0.007	27%	$4,944,821
FCT	Firstwave Cloud Tech	0.019	27%	$34,200,387
SMN	Structural Monitor	0.72	25%	$100,958,903
ASQ	Australian Silica	0.03	25%	$8,455,811
CBL	Control Bionics	0.065	25%	$12,953,640
ICE	Icetana Limited	0.025	25%	$6,615,711
MSG	MCS Services Limited	0.005	25%	$792,399
PNX	PNX Metals Limited	0.005	25%	$29,851,074
SKN	Skin Elements Ltd	0.005	25%	$2,947,430
T3D	333D Limited	0.01	25%	$1,194,449
HFR	Highfield Res Ltd	0.325	25%	$133,342,469
HVY	Heavy Minerals	0.097	24%	$6,107,701
IXU	IXUP Limited	0.026	24%	$35,598,310

Super quickly, here’s how the Small Cap winners ended up where they were on the ladder.

Conico (ASX:CNJ) and Intra Energy Corporation (ASX:IEC) both managed to bank 100% gains this week, with Conico’s win coming largely because of the quarterly it dropped at the start of the week.

Intra Energy earned its place on the top step of the podium thanks to news that drilling has been completed at its high priority Maggie Hays Hill Project, in the Lake Johnston Greenstone Belt, Western Australia, which encompasses the 2.5 km long southern pegmatite lithium target, and the central and northern gold targets.

And it was Appen (ASX:APX) dropping its quarterly report on Tuesday that helped it take third place among the Small Caps for the week – details of which you will find below.

THIS WEEK’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Code	Company	Price	% Week	Market Cap
ME1	Melodiol Global Health	0.0015	-63%	$1,215,473
ERA	Energy Resources	0.015	-56%	$332,224,488
RCR	Rincon	0.041	-55%	$11,942,303
SMM	Somerset Minerals	0.002	-50%	$3,092,996
HE8	Helios Energy Ltd	0.011	-42%	$31,248,593
MEL	Metgasco Ltd	0.003	-40%	$4,342,760
RWD	Reward Minerals Ltd	0.036	-39%	$9,114,126
CMO	Cosmo Metals	0.036	-38%	$4,613,634
AS2	Askari Metals	0.026	-35%	$2,451,754
WEC	White Energy Company	0.028	-35%	$8,556,324
BCB	Bowen Coal Limited	0.029	-34%	$93,984,181
AQX	Alice Queen Ltd	0.006	-33%	$6,881,340
CL8	Carly Holdings Ltd	0.01	-33%	$2,683,704
TKL	Traka Resources	0.001	-33%	$1,945,659
TYX	Tyranna Res Ltd	0.004	-33%	$13,151,701
88E	88 Energy Ltd	0.002	-33%	$86,801,436
UCM	Uscom Limited	0.013	-32%	$3,241,479
IBX	Imagion Biosys Ltd	0.039	-30%	$1,399,862
DTZ	Dotz Nano Ltd	0.105	-30%	$57,613,832
E33	East 33 Limited	0.012	-29%	$9,302,207
MXO	Motio Ltd	0.017	-29%	$4,559,372
GTI	Gratifii	0.005	-29%	$10,536,286
NWC	New World Resources	0.02	-29%	$59,624,916
FXG	Felix Gold Limited	0.033	-28%	$9,015,443
EMN	Euro Manganese	0.048	-27%	$10,030,274
NNL	Nordic Nickel	0.065	-26%	$8,442,450
AZ9	Asian Batterymet PLC	0.02	-26%	$6,648,730
ADD	Adavale Resource Ltd	0.003	-25%	$3,195,796
CRR	Critical Resources	0.006	-25%	$8,901,751
GR8	Great Dirt Resources	0.15	-25%	$4,361,439
HCD	Hydrocarbon Dynamic	0.003	-25%	$3,234,329
IVX	Invion Ltd	0.003	-25%	$19,813,597
LNR	Lanthanein Resources	0.003	-25%	$7,330,908
MKL	Mighty Kingdom Ltd	0.003	-25%	$9,647,829
MOH	Moho Resources	0.0045	-25%	$2,695,891
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.0015	-25%	$12,394,892
NSM	Northstaw	0.015	-25%	$2,098,137
OAR	OAR Resources Ltd	0.0015	-25%	$4,833,150
PKO	Peako Limited	0.003	-25%	$1,581,254
PUA	Peak Minerals Ltd	0.003	-25%	$3,592,130
RMX	Red Mount Mining	0.0015	-25%	$5,135,366
RNE	Renu Energy Ltd	0.003	-25%	$2,904,536
SHO	Sportshero Ltd	0.003	-25%	$1,853,499
TMK	TMK Energy Limited	0.003	-25%	$24,225,642
TMX	Terrain Minerals	0.003	-25%	$5,298,086
VPR	Voltg Group	0.0015	-25%	$16,074,312
WFL	Wellfully Limited	0.003	-25%	$1,478,832
GRV	Greenvale Energy Ltd	0.025	-24%	$12,844,409
ENL	Enlitic Inc.	0.11	-24%	$8,658,609
PSC	Prospect Resources	0.095	-24%	$52,654,787

HOW THE WEEK SHOOK OUT

Monday 29 July, 2024

Aruma Resources (ASX:AAJ) was rising quickly Monday morning on news of surface rock chip samples that have led to high-grade copper assay results from the Fiery Creek Copper Project in the Mt Isa copper belt, in northern Queensland.

Terra Uranium (ASX:T92) has received assay results from sampling during the recent field visit to the Amer Lake project, with samples up to 7,950 ppm uranium (0.94% U3O8). The company has also revealed that assessment reporting is now complete and submitted to the Nunavut Mining Recorder for processing which is anticipated to extend the mineral claims expiry by at least 5 – 7 years.

ActivEX (ASX:AIV) was up thanks to a positive quarterly report, with headway made at both its Gilberton Gold Project in North Queensland, and the Aramac REE Project in Central Queensland. The company also outlined plans for further exploration work in the near term.

Beforepay Group (ASX:B4P) was also climbing after a happy quarterly on Monday morning, with the company revealing it has achieved a net profit before tax of $1.4m and an EBITDA of $2.7m. This is the company’s fourth consecutive quarterly un-audited net profit.

New Age Exploration (ASX:NAE) is up on news it has commenced drilling in the next step of its six-month exploration program at the Wagyu Gold Project in the Pilbara, WA, following the successful completion of a cultural heritage survey. The drill program will test high priority targets, including a “Hemi-style” intrusive gold target.

Nagambie Resources (ASX:NAG) was moving quickly on Monday after alerting the market to the fact that the market prices of antimony (Sb) and gold (Au) have currently increased 110% and 24% respectively above the conservative forecasts considered at the time its maiden JORC Resource was announced, which claimed 415,000 tonnes averaging 3.6g/t Au plus 4.3% Sb for in-ground metal content of 47,800oz gold and 17,800t antimony.

Australian reproductive biotechnology company Memphasys (ASX:MEM) was climbing late on Monday, following news that the company has received $1 million from a combination of a sizeable subscription by major shareholder Andrew Goodall, and the arrival of a R&D Tax incentive cheque from the ATO.

NT Minerals (ASX:NTM) also gained ground on news that it has entered into an agreement for an exploration and ownership opportunity in the Archaean Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. Known as the Twin Peaks project, the site has been identified as prospective for several key minerals, and boasts stratigraphy analogous to the nearby Golden Grove Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag-Au deposit.

Tuesday 30 July 2024

African Gold (ASX:A1G) was flying quickly on Tuesday morning, on news of a maiden gold resource from the Blaffo Guetto prospect at the Didievi Project in  Cote d’Ivoire, which has come in at an inferred 4.93Mt for 452koz of gold at 2.9 g/t (1.0 g/t Au cut off). The company says that several key assays tell an exciting story, such as 10.0m at 123.0g/t gold from 66m including 2.0m at 613.0g/t gold, and 80.0m at 3.0g/t gold from surface, including 23.0m at 9.5g/t gold.

Small explorer Castle Minerals (ASX:CDT) delivered its quarterly, revealing that things are progressing much as you’d expect them to, with the company recently raising close to $600k in a placement to boost its warchest to around $1 million, while it continues its search for graphite and gold across three projects.

Appen (ASX:APX) also dropped its quarterly this morning, with mixed (but still mostly positive) news that revenue for Q2 FY24 was $55.0 million, down 16% on previous corresponding period – however, excluding Google revenue from the equation has the company’s revenue for Q2 FY24 grew 16% from $47.2 million in Q2 FY23.

Regener8 Resources (ASX:R8R) was up on news that the company has executed an agreement covering the  acquisition of tenement application ELA6755, known to its friends as North Achilles, in the Cobar district of western NSW. Regener8’s purchase lies approximately 2km along strike from Australian Gold and Copper (ASX:AGC) recent Achilles discovery, which has returned drill intercepts up to 5m @ 16.9g/t Au, 1,667g/t Ag, 0.4% Cu and 15% Pb + Zn.

RooLife Group (ASX:RLG) delivered its quarterly, and while it’s not an at-a-glance smash hit, it was enough to get investors excited. The company has, by the looks of things, been trimming some of the fat from the expense side of the ledger this past quarter, and while revenue was down the company still has a handy million or so in cash reserves.

Otto Energy’s (ASX:OEL) quarterly had some great news for shareholders, with the company reaffirming its decision to give as much money as it can back to investors. Otta says it had $60.8 million in cash balances at the end of the quarter – and after the proposed return of capital of up to $40 million, will still have at least $20.8 million of cash at bank – and will, from time to time, continue to look for ways to hand it out.

SaaS technology company AD1 Holdings (ASX:AD1) released its quarterly this morning, and investors were enjoying what it had to say. AD1 says that its North American business has grown by over 100%, a rebranding is well underway and the company has about 200 grand in the bank.

DXN (ASX:DXN) revealed in its quarterly report that total revenue for the quarter of $3.8 million was up 145% over this time last year, (4Q23: $1.6 million). FY24 revenue rose 41% to $10.9 million – up from $7.8 million in FY23, adding that sales growth has been driven by the deployment of new modular data centre sales across multiple clients.

Elixinol Global (ASX:EXL) issued its quarterly, and it’s jam-packed with healthy news that’s tasty as well. Q2 Group revenue was up 118% to $3.7 million from $1.7M a year ago, and that represents the seventh consecutive quarter of revenue growth. Additionally, record Q2 sales of $3.2 million are a twofold increase over Q2 FY23, a 29% improvement on Q1’s $2.5 million and have handed Elixinol an unaudited H1 revenue that has almost doubled to $6.8 million from $3.5 million on PCP.

Later in the day, Carnavale Resources (ASX:CAV) delivered a quarterly that got investors jiggling this arvo, despite there being no ‘fresh news’ in it – but as far as “we’ve had a cracker of a quarter” reports go, Carnavale’s was pretty solid, highlighting the work the company has completed and reminding us all that they have a MRE from the Swiftsure deposit at the Kookynie Gold Project that clocks in at 457kt @ 5.8g/t for 85koz. Mmmm… juicy.

Bioxyne (ASX:BXN) dropped its quarterly as well, revealing that it took in revenue of $3.1 million for the quarter, taking the company’s full year total to $9.43 million – which is a 25% increase on the aggregated revenue for FY2023 of $7.5 million. Bioxyne also noted that it’s back on track after some third-party delays, with its milestone of being awarded Australia’s first GMP certification for psilocybin and MDMA following rescheduling of these medicines heralded as a monumental achievement by the board.

Wednesday 31 July, 2024

Volt Power Group (ASX:VPR) was leading the charge Wednesday morning on a solid quarterly, which outlined that the company has achieved record Q2 Ordinary Revenue receipts of $2.0 million., YTD ordinary revenue receipts were up ~ 75% to $3.0 million vs YTD FY23 comparison $1.7 million. Additionally, the company \achieved record YTD Net Cash from Operating Activities totalling $1.3 million (YTD FY23 comparison $0.4 million) – which is up ~200%, and leaves Volt with $2.4 million in the bank.

Kalina Power (ASX:KPO) delivered its quarterly today, outlining tbhe company’s continued process to secure funding to complete the project development of its projects. This includes KDP’s ~200MW projects deploying natural gas-fired Combined Cycle Power Plants integrated with Carbon Capture and Sequestration (‘CC-CCS’) as well as potential investment at KDP’s Saddle Hills project.

Algorae Pharmaceuticals (ASX:1AI) was up on complicated news around some fresh, positive Pre-Clinical Results that showed its drug AI-116 “significantly reduces glutamate-induced toxicity in vitro, exceeding that of existing FDA registered drug for dementia, Donepezil”.

Alterity Therapeutics (ASX:ATH) was up because its quarterly says that the company saw positive interim data reported from ATH434-202 Phase 2 clinical trial showing improvement on the UMSARS Activities of Daily Living Scale and stable or improved neurological symptoms in some patients. The quarterly also says the company has “Cash balance on 30 June 2024 of A$12.6” – which I’m assuming is meant to have the word “million” on the end, because otherwise it’d be your shout for lunch.

New Age Exploration (ASX:NAE) is up because… it also released a quarterly, outlining how things are going at its Wagyu Gold Project, which is located in the well-endowed gold region of the Central Pilbara next door to De Grey’s Hemi (things are going well) and how the sale of the company’s Lochinvar metallurgical coal project is going (it has been sold).

333D (ASX:T3D) – which is a 3D printing company – has announced a new services agreement with each of Next Healthcare and Cloud Strike (t/a Align Radiology) to provide ongoing digital asset management and 3D printing services to those entities. It’s all very complicated but the main thrust is that its most likely going to be steady, ongoing work for 333D as it develops software and processes to meet the needs of both entities.

Spacetalk (ASX:SPA) was up on Wednesday, because it also delivered quarterly with some good news in it – namely, that the company achieved positive cash flow from operating activities of $0.85 million in Q4FY24, up from -$1.5 million in Q4 FY23, and positive free cashflow of $0.37 million, up from Q4 FY23’s -$2.24 million. That’s due to turnaround measures put in place by the company, and a 58% increase vs PCP for customer receipts.

Thursday 01 August, 2024

Besra Gold (ASX:BEZ) was climbing well on Thursday morning, apparently on the news that the company has appointed Mine Development Specialist Matthew Antill as managing director of Besra’s Malaysian operating subsidiary, North Borneo Gold Sdn Bhd where he will head the mining and development team.

“Antill’s career spans over three decades in mining and mine development, with significant senior operational management experience and oversight of studies in both open pit and underground operations. He specialises in gold, including refractory and narrow vein operations,” the company says.

Buxton Resources (ASX:BUX) was on the move after announcing that the 2024 field season has commenced in the West Kimberley, with an extensive program of diamond drilling planned the Dogleg Ni-Cu-Co Prospect and MLEM surveys across the wider Quick Shears Project area.

ENRG Elements (ASX:EEL) was also climbing on Thursday morning, after the company announced that it has acquired the Lamont Lake uranium exploration project in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The company says historical geological data from the project indicates shallow mineralisation and potential for significant resource development, with historical data showing shallow grade mineralisation occurs from near-surface to 57m and with grades of between 0.02% and 0.5% U3O8.

The smart building materials company ClearVue Technologies (ASX:CPV) says it’s just hit the lucrative Middle East and Indian construction markets by signing an agreement with Alutec, Qatar’s largest glass processor and façade manufacturer and a group company under Aria Holding.

The breakthrough five-year deal consists of manufacturing and distribution partnership for ClearVuePV unique Solar Glazing and Insulated Glass Units (IGUs) in Alutec’s key markets, and opens access for CPV into the booming construction sector across Qatar, The UAE, and Saudi Arabia – which CPV notes has been projected to clock US$240 billion by 2029. The Indian construction sector is thought to hit $1.4 trillion by next year.

Friday 02 August, 2024

Spacetalk (ASX:SPA) hit positive cash flow today – from operating activities of $0.85 million in Q4FY24 (Q4 FY23: negative -$1.5 million) and positive free cashflow of $0.37million (Q4 FY23: negative -$2.24 million).

The turnaround apparently reflects Spacetalk’s execution of its strategic plan resulting in effective cost management and revenue strategies, strengthening its financial position and positioning the company for future growth. Stock is spacewalking on Friday.

MONEYME (ASX:MME) grew Q4 loan originations by 25% over the previous quarter to $165m while increasing its loan book by 6% to $1.22bn. Net credit losses dropped from 4.8% in Q3 to 4.5% while gross revenue climbed 1% to $54m. Shares in the company were up 30% this AM.

Alto Metals (ASX:AME) spiked thanks to a tie-in/takeover with Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR), with the company now able to come out of a trading halt because a certain condition has been met – to whit, the results of Brightstar’s bookbuild in connection with a $24,000,000 capital raise ahead of the Alto purchase.

The deal would see Alto shareholders pocket 4 Brightstar shares per Alto share, and Brightstar gets its hands on Alto’s 100%-owned Sandstone Gold Project, comprising a significant land position in the East Murchison and current Mineral Resource of 1.05Moz Au at 1.5g/t.

Veris (ASX:VRS) was also up, largely due to a healthy trading update the company released a couple of days ago, which has been interpreted as “good” by investors, and sent the company climbing a smidgen over 14% today.

Earlier in the day, the leaders included Estrella Resources (ASX:ESR), after the company delivered an investor webinar on the heels of news that it has an update to exploration activities in the Lautém Municipality of Timor-Leste and the discovery of the a supergene manganese Sica Prospect, the latter of which is quite visually exciting as areas of manganese mineralisation lie exposed on the surface, with pXRF determinations in the field range between 59% – 26% Mn.

And Bastion Minerals (ASX:BMO) was up earlier on news that it has successfully completed a placement to raise $500,000 before costs through a one-tranche placement, with a 1 for 3 free attaching option along with an entitlement issue to raise up to A$1,500,000 before costs.

Originally published as ASX Small Caps Weekly Wrap: Make it stop, please… I want to get off Mr Bones’ Wild Ride