ASX Small Caps Lunch Wrap: Local benchmarks take cue from Wall Street

ASX 200 up at lunch as Wall Street closes at record highs on Friday, offsetting disappointment about China’s stimulus package.

The ASX has been Wall Street play out to set its direction. Pic: Getty Images

• ASX lifts 0.3% despite Chinese weak stimulus package, closing in on record high

• Webjet tanks on earnings forecasts, but $45m Seek M&A offer powers Xref to massive gain

• James Bay Minerals' golden pivot in Nevada sends investors giddy

Despite concerns about China's disappointing stimulus package, the Australian market quickly piled on the pounds, taking direction instead from Wall Street, which marked record closing highs on Friday.

Locally, healthcare stocks were the winners with materials, financials and real estate trailing behind.

To Markets

The ASX was up this morning with the S&P/ASX 200 index up by 0.3% at lunch time. Trading at 8,242, the index is now just 50 points shy of last month’s record close.

Healthcare was the best performing sector, led by Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX), which rose almost 2%. Bank stocks also performed well, spurred by solid earnings from US banks.

Mining stocks mostly rallied despite China’s stimulus announcement on Saturday failing to meet market expectations.

Source: Market Index

A look at the sub-indices shows ASX 200 Resources making gains against the rest of the market, up 1.771%.

Chart via Marketindex

In the commodities space, oil stocks struggled after crude prices dipped following a lacklustre briefing from China which failed to provide any significant stimulus for the markets.

Meanwhile, Chinese inflation data released this morning weighed on the markets, showing a 2.8% contraction in the Producer Price Index.

In stocks news, Web Travel Group (ASX:WEB) was the worst performing stock after plunging by 30%.

The company’s preliminary trading update revealed that while Total Transaction Value (TTV) and bookings have improved, the company's EBITDA margins are projected to decline from 52% to about 44% compared to the previous year.

Seek (ASX:SEK) has made a $45 million buyout offer for candidates reference checker company Xref (ASX:XF1). The news has pushed SEK up 1.5% while XF1 soared by 55%.

Lifestyle Communities (ASX:LIC) saw its shares drop 3% after CEO James Kelly announced his resignation.

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for 14 October :

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

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
OAR	OAR Resources Ltd	0.003	200%	19,205,027	$3,300,835
RNE	Renu Energy Ltd	0.002	100%	2,528,777	$845,245
JBY	James Bay Minerals	0.325	63%	4,235,721	$6,688,500
XF1	Xref Limited	0.21	56%	1,301,817	$25,526,241
TMK	TMK Energy Limited	0.003	50%	497,000	$15,183,224
VPR	Voltgroupltd	0.0015	50%	1,452,568	$10,716,208
ALR	Altairminerals	0.004	33%	34,000	$12,889,733
AMD	Arrow Minerals	0.002	33%	5,742,507	$19,072,296
PAT	Patriot Lithium	0.055	31%	1,073,098	$4,346,180
CR1	Constellation Res	0.16	28%	178,525	$7,879,903
NYM	Narryermetalslimited	0.028	27%	10	$2,915,134
CTO	Citigold Corp Ltd	0.005	25%	209,825	$12,000,000
EEL	Enrg Elements Ltd	0.0025	25%	103,926	$2,090,032
GTI	Gratifii	0.005	25%	9,720	$8,596,785
NSX	NSX Limited	0.042	24%	983,291	$15,564,553
NSM	Northstaw	0.023	21%	97,660	$3,054,740
MVL	Marvel Gold Limited	0.012	20%	7,598,253	$8,637,907
NES	Nelson Resources.	0.003	20%	550,598	$1,596,486
WYX	Western Yilgarn NL	0.032	19%	171,042	$2,701,608
LU7	Lithium Universe Ltd	0.02	18%	2,136,242	$10,096,531
TZN	Terramin Australia	0.049	17%	108,088	$88,895,634
ACP	Audalia Res Ltd	0.021	17%	20,045	$12,458,451
KLI	Killiresources	0.175	17%	356,951	$21,033,561
ATH	Alterity Therap Ltd	0.0035	17%	2,021,665	$15,961,008
BPH	BPH Energy Ltd	0.014	17%	4,079,401	$14,604,394

ReNu Energy (ASX:RNE) has partially disclosed a behind-doors offer for its hydrogen assets including Tasmanian green hydrogen project that was recently awarded an $8m grant from the Tasmanian Government based on delivering green hydrogen to customers.

James Bay Minerals (ASX:JBY) climbed after executing a definitive term sheet to purchase and earn-in up to 100% of the advanced, high-grade Independence gold project, located at Battle Mountain, Nevada in the US. Independence features a non-JORC NI43-101 resource of 1.18Moz gold and 7.6Moz silver, including a high-grade component of 769,200oz gold at a grade of 6.53g/t that is open in all directions.

Xref (ASX:XF1) is up after announcing that it is set to be acquired by jobs platform Seek (ASX:SEK). XF1 said it had entered into an exclusivity deed with SEK following receipt of a non-binding indicative offer to acquire all of its shares for 21.81 cents in cash/share, by way of a scheme of arrangement.

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for 14 October :

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

Code	Company	Price	%	Volume	Market Cap
WEB	WEB Travel Group Ltd	4.785	-32%	16,877,296	$2,759,488,410
PRX	Prodigy Gold NL	0.0015	-25%	20,000	$4,664,912
TMX	Terrain Minerals	0.003	-25%	2,288,164	$7,200,115
TYX	Tyranna Res Ltd	0.003	-25%	392,432	$13,151,701
YAR	Yari Minerals Ltd	0.003	-25%	125	$1,929,431
IMI	Infinitymining	0.029	-24%	531,471	$5,158,277
88E	88 Energy Ltd	0.002	-20%	2,803,259	$72,334,530
BYH	Bryah Resources Ltd	0.004	-20%	82,000	$2,516,434
RMX	Red Mount Min Ltd	0.008	-20%	80,992	$3,873,578
TSL	Titanium Sands Ltd	0.004	-20%	16,425	$11,058,736
STM	Sunstone Metals Ltd	0.0065	-19%	22,512,193	$34,607,229
BCM	Brazilian Critical	0.009	-18%	7,299,203	$9,138,134
IR1	Irismetals	0.3	-18%	606,239	$50,775,143
HTG	Harvest Tech Grp Ltd	0.014	-18%	1,250,304	$13,884,625
CUL	Cullen Resources	0.005	-17%	324,813	$4,160,411
CYQ	Cycliq Group Ltd	0.005	-17%	30,000	$2,673,100
CZN	Corazon Ltd	0.005	-17%	1,600,000	$4,007,434
H2G	Greenhy2 Limited	0.005	-17%	829,800	$3,589,105
IBG	Ironbark Zinc Ltd	0.0025	-17%	24,000	$5,500,943
PGY	Pilot Energy Ltd	0.017	-15%	5,310,544	$28,557,766
CMD	Cassius Mining Ltd	0.006	-14%	2,029,032	$3,794,031
LMS	Litchfield Minerals	0.12	-14%	676,204	$3,858,750
NPM	Newpeak Metals	0.012	-14%	10,000	$4,275,671
RGT	Argent Biopharma Ltd	0.405	-14%	61,136	$23,220,633
SBR	Sabre Resources	0.013	-13%	350,328	$5,894,429

Infinity Mining (ASX:IMI) has completed a private placement of 106 million shares priced at 1.9c each, a ~31% discount to the 30-day volume weighted average price, to raise $2m. Proceeds will be allocated to advancing gold and copper exploration projects from the GMH, EVGE, and Cangai project acquisitions, as well as existing projects.

Likewise, Sunstone Metals (ASX:STM) raised $4m after completing an oversubscribed share purchase plan priced at 0.5c each. Directors had decided to accept oversubscriptions to the full amount subscribed so that all shareholders who subscribed can participate to the full extent of the application submitted.

ICYMI – AM EDITION

Zeotech (ASX:ZEO) has raised $1.82m by way of a heavily supported placement to non-related party investors, deemed ‘sophisticated investors’, at an issue price of $0.03c.

Funds from the initiative ensures Zeotech is well funded to execute its near-term strategic initiatives throughout 2024 and beyond.

Zeotech is focused on becoming Australia’s first large-scale producer of high reactivity metakaolin for the low-carbon concrete and cement markets.

Proceeds will be spent towards advancing feasibility and front-end engineering design (FEED) studies associated with the Toondoon kaolin project, helping to accelerate Toondoon ML mining plan works, conducting a Metakaolin Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), and other project activities.

Vertex Minerals (ASX:VTX) has appointed Chris Hamilton to the role of general manager operations for the Hill End Reward gold mine in NSW, spearheading the transition from development to mining operations.

Hamilton has more than 24 years of underground mine operational and technical experience including key roles in NSW goldmines and brings significant underground mining and management experience through CSA, Peak, Hera, and Tritton mines.

“We’re pleased to welcome Chris to the Vertex team, his extensive underground hard rock mining, operations and leadership experience can only bode well for the success of the high-grade Reward gold mine,” VTX executive chairman Roger Jackson said.

Reward is considered one of Australia’s highest grade gold deposits with 419,000t grading 16.72g/t gold – or 225,200oz of contained gold – with a higher confidence indicated resource of 141,000t at 15.54g/t, or 70,500oz of contained gold.

D3 Energy (ASX:D3E) has wrapped up drilling and completed the RBD12 well in Free State, South Africa, which hit a total depth of 594m.

The well was drilled to assess the reservoir’s long-term deliverability and to collect additional data on helium and methane concentrations.

D3E says at the completion of drilling, gas was flowing to surface.

The wellhead has now been installed and production testing will begin in the coming weeks after the testing of RBD01 and once RBD12 has stabilised following drilling operations.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While D3 Energy, James Bay Minerals, Vertex Minerals and Zeotech are Stockhead advertisers at the time of writing, they did not sponsor this article.

Originally published as ASX Small Caps Lunch Wrap: Local benchmarks take cue from Wall Street