ASX Small Caps Lunch Wrap: Local benchmark flattens out after early dip, energy stocks surge

The ASX 200 took an early dip on the back of escalating conflict in the Middle East but has somewhat flattened out at lunch.

Pic via Getty Images

• ASX 200 took a dive on the back of escalating conflict in the Middle East but has somewhat recovered

• Local energy stocks enjoy a surge after oil spikes, while ressies are faring okay (on the whole) 

• ASX winners at lunch include The Hydration Pharmaceuticals Company and Askari Metals 

The ASX swung from early gains to trade flattish at the half way mark as investors sought safe havens amid fears of escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Crude prices spiked by 5% to their highest in more than a year after Iran unleashed 200 missiles on Israel, sending sirens wailing throughout the country as residents took refuge in bomb shelters. Israel vowed to retaliate.

Most ASX sectors were down this morning, especially Tech and Discretionary.

However, those losses were offset by the Energy sector which is enjoying a surge of over 2% from the oil spike.

Brent crude futures are trading around $US74.55 a barrel at this time of writing, and Woodside Energy Group (ASX:WDS) and Santos (ASX:STO) were among the big winners in energy today, rising around 3% each.

Separately, Santos revealed that it has secured a deal with TotalEnergies Gas & Power Asia to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The agreement includes 20 cargoes, amounting to about 0.5 million tonnes per year, over a three-year period plus an additional quarter. The supply will start in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Meanwhile, gold miners saw gains and cryptos tanked as investors rushed to safe haven assets.

NOT THE ASX

The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite took a hit overnigh, down by 1.5% with Nvidia dropping 3.66%. The NYSE Fang + Index, which covers the biggest seven tech stocks, also slipped by 1.5%.

The blue chips Dow Jones dropped by 0.4%, while the S&P 500 ended the day down 0.9%.

Crude prices spiked to their highest in more than a year after Iran unleashed 200 missiles on Israel, sending sirens wailing throughout the country as residents took refuge in bomb shelters. Israel vowed to retaliate.

James Reilly at Capital Economics said one concern for the market is the impact this could have on inflation.

“An important consideration will be whether Saudi Arabia increases production if Iranian supplies were disrupted,” he added.
Safe haven gold jumped by 1% following the strike, while cryptocurrencies dipped.

Meanwhile, US data shows a surprising rise in job openings to 8.04 million in August.

This now sets the stage for Friday’s highly anticipated September jobs report, where investors will be hoping for confirmation the US economy is cooling, not collapsing.

In stocks news, Nike’s earnings beat expectations, but revenue fell short, causing the stock to plunge 5% in after-hours trading. Nike’s shares have dropped over 25% this year.

Super Micro Computer fell 3% following a 10-for-1 stock split that took effect after the market closed.

Barclays analyst Tim Long raised concerns about weak demand for the iPhone 16, suggesting Apple may have cut production by around 3 million units for the December quarter.

Long has maintained his Underweight rating on Apple, signalling it might be time to sell. Apple’s shares fell by almost 3%.
With markets in China closed for a holiday, Japan’s Nikkei took centre stage, though it was down by 1.5% at lunchtime.

Source: Market Index

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for October 2 :

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

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
HPC	Thehydration	0.021	133%	837,656	$2,744,218
H2G	Greenhy2 Limited	0.005	67%	967,441	$1,794,553
RBR	RBR Group Ltd	0.0015	50%	179,603	$1,634,405
AS2	Askarimetalslimited	0.031	41%	3,166,821	$2,157,543
RWD	Reward Minerals Ltd	0.057	39%	54,573	$9,341,979
DDT	DataDot Technology	0.004	33%	6,634,714	$3,632,858
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.002	33%	702,351	$9,296,169
PR1	Pureresourceslimited	0.12	26%	67,921	$4,171,729
BGE	Bridgesaaslimited	0.025	25%	149,934	$3,186,683
AVE	Avecho Biotech Ltd	0.0025	25%	2,674,099	$6,338,594
CR9	Corellares	0.01	25%	471,500	$3,720,739
VFX	Visionflex Group Ltd	0.005	25%	1,857,499	$11,671,298
LM8	Lunnonmetalslimited	0.28	22%	1,656,995	$50,707,812
AR9	Archtis Limited	0.082	21%	2,008,864	$19,490,452
BTH	Bigtincan Hldgs Ltd	0.1925	20%	5,130,308	$131,468,149
ADD	Adavale Resource Ltd	0.003	20%	766,666	$3,059,413
EWC	Energy World Corpor.	0.012	20%	6,976,127	$30,789,212
LU7	Lithium Universe Ltd	0.012	20%	2,449,836	$5,939,136
SYR	Syrah Resources	0.305	20%	5,095,092	$263,897,400
KNB	Koonenberrygold	0.013	18%	1,400,000	$3,165,662
AZ9	Asianbatterymet PLC	0.033	18%	266,222	$8,462,020
CPO	Culpeominerals	0.035	17%	1,535,303	$6,108,667
ROG	Red Sky Energy.	0.007	17%	1,428,606	$32,533,363
TEG	Triangle Energy Ltd	0.007	17%	6,168,941	$12,480,804
TFL	Tasfoods Ltd	0.014	17%	40,000	$5,245,146

Hydration solutions company The Hydration Pharmaceuticals Company (ASX:HPC) is crushing it today with a 130%+ gain after announcing it has entered into an Intellectual Property Sales Agreement with Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc. and associated subsidiaries.

Per HPC's ASX release this morning: "Pursuant to the Agreement and associated arrangements, the Company will assign and transfer the exclusive right to sell Hydralyte products, and associated intellectual property rights, to Prestige in all relevant jurisdictions other than the United States of America."

Askari Metals (ASX:AS2) is up more than 40% at the time of writing, after a strategic review of its Mt Maguire gold project in WA’s Pilbara identified extensive gold mineralisation over a prospective 8km strike length of untested shear zones.

Historical results include high-grade intercepts of 2m at 12.14g/t gold from 35m as well as broader gold intercepts such as 31m at 0.84g/t from 20m, including 1m @ 6.74g/t from 25m.

archTIS (ASX:AR9), a global provider of data-centric security solutions for the secure collaboration of sensitive information was an early riser this morning.

Somewhat topical, as its share price move is based on a military/defence angle, with the company announcing the signing of a $2.3 million contract to expand NC Protect licenses with the Australian Department of Defence.

This follows on from the $700K services contract awarded in June 2024 and, says the company, establishes its NC Protect product as the data-centric security option of choice for Defence SharePoint on-premises deployments.

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for October 2 :

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

Code	Company	Price	%	Volume	Market Cap
PAB	Patrys Limited	0.003	-50%	14,216,462	$12,344,684
ATH	Alterity Therap Ltd	0.003	-25%	2,541,410	$21,281,344
BUR	Burleyminerals	0.055	-20%	2,837,956	$10,375,595
OVT	Ovanti Limited	0.004	-20%	2,632,851	$7,781,742
RMXDD	Red Mount Min Ltd	0.008	-20%	17,799	$3,873,577
AWJ	Auric Mining	0.29	-18%	1,206,302	$52,736,447
KFM	Kingfisher Mining	0.079	-17%	240,811	$5,102,925
DOU	Douugh Limited	0.005	-17%	105,000	$6,492,414
LML	Lincoln Minerals	0.005	-17%	378,626	$12,337,557
AVM	Advance Metals Ltd	0.021	-16%	10,000	$4,212,479

ICYMI – AM EDITION

Pan Asia Metals (ASX:PAM) has entered into two binding option agreements to purchase the Tama Atacama lithium project from the Rajo Partnership back in December 2023, with each option agreement had an annual option payment of US$100,000 in cash.

PAM has now advised that Rajo Partnership has agreed to adjust the annual option payments to 50% in cash and 50% in shares, at PAM’s election.

The company has agreed to pay the first 50% of each option in shares at A$0.06 per share.

“This is a good outcome for the company and the vendors, strengthening our relationship as lithium producers start to realise that brine projects will survive the lithium price cycles as they are the lowest cost source of lithium, and that Chile produces the lowest cost lithium globally,” managing director Paul Lock said.

“The adjustment to the option payment terms allows PAM to deploy its cash resources into exploration and development.”

Tama Atacama is one of the most strategically placed pre-drill lithium projects in South America, in an infrastructure rich environment, only 75km from two major ports and on rail and road to Antofagasta, an emerging lithium chemical manufacturing hub.

The project is also situated in highly active mining regions at ~1,000m altitude, which is 1,300m lower than Salar de Atacama, where the lowest cost lithium is currently produced.

Next steps for the company include geophysics and drilling, targeting the areas that are interpreted to be prospective to intersect lithium brines.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions. 

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Pan Asia Metals is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.

Originally published as ASX Small Caps Lunch Wrap: Local benchmark flattens out after early dip, energy stocks surge