ASX Small Caps and IPO Weekly Wrap: A fantastic week for Energy and gold… shame about everyone else, but

• It was all going well until it wasn’t, and the benchmark’s down 2.7% for the week
• Energy Sector and anything gold did well, while everyone else hit the skids
• Little goldie Dacian topped the charts with a 130% boost in a rough market

 

Monday to Wednesday didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but for those three days it really did look like the ASX was going to weather another rough week.

But things have deteriorated considerably in the Middle East, sending oil prices surging and gold prices to record Aussie highs.

And Jerome Powell said some stuff in America and Wall Street sat down like a fat guy in a beanbag at the end of a difficult shift, and now here we are.

The ASX fell sharply on Thursday and Friday, to end the week down around 2.7%, and it was only Energy stocks and the Goldies left standing to hold back the rest of the market’s hair while it puked its guts out for 48 hours.

The chart below tells part of the story:

 

 

… and this little snippet tells the rest.

 

All up, the past couple of days have been pretty brutal – but the weekend’s here, and maybe… just maybe… a few days off to reset and come back strong on Monday is all the market needs to get back onto firmer ground.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks from 09-13 October:

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

WordPress Tables Plugin

 

The standout performer was the little goldie that could, Dacian Gold (ASX:DCN), which shot through a 130% gain on news that Genesis Minerals (ASX:GMD) wants to buy it, lock stock and barrel, at a considerable premium to where Dacian had been trading.

Pinnacle Minerals’ (ASX:PIM) 78% jump for the week happened off the back of news that the company’s buying up a slice of James Bay lithium magic, and Whitebark Energy (ASX:WBE) has turned on the taps again at Wizard Lake for a 69% gain since Monday.

All the details behind the news are listed down below.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks from 18-22 September:

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

WordPress Tables Plugin

 

HOW THE WEEK SHOOK OUT

Monday October 16, 2023 – ASX down -0.35%

Dacian Gold (ASX:DCN), soared after the board told investors to take up the offer from Genesis Minerals (ASX:GMD) for the latter to acquire all the bits of Dacian it doesn’t already own.

It’s a generous offer – 0.1685 Genesis Shares for every one (1) Dacian share, improving to 0.1935 Genesis Shares for every one (1) Dacian share you hold if, during or at the end of the offer period, Genesis acquires a relevant interest in at least 95.1% of Dacian shares on issue.

That values Dacian at around $256 million, at an individual share price of $0.235 to start with, which – should the improved offer come into play – climbs to $328 million at $0.27 per share.

That’s a premium of 116% to Dacian’s closing share price of $0.125 on 13 October, and 127% to Dacian’s 20-day VWAP of $0.119 per share.

Elsewhere, Black Mountain Energy (ASX:BME) gained well into the double digits after informing the market that the previously announced sale of 100% of its acreage and its title and interest in the Half Moon prospect, a well in the Permian basin, currently held by subsidiary Seven Rivers, has been settled. BME will pocket $10.4 million for the sale.

Native Mineral Resources (ASX:NMR) rose strongly on Monday after reporting some positive assays from its first pass field work program at the newly acquired McLaughlin Lake Lithium Project in Manitoba in Canada.

These initial sampling results confirm the presence of high-grade lithium at McLaughlin Lake, with two assays from one of the known “Barry” pegmatite occurrences returning assays of 2.25% and 2.77% Li20 respectively.

 

Tuesday October 17, 2023 – ASX up +0.4%

Pinnacle Minerals (ASX:PIM) led the way in small caps, up 66.7% on news it is set to acquire a 75% interest in the Adina East Lithium Project in the James Bay lithium district.

The project covers 72.7km2 of land in the red-hot lithium region, just down the road from Winsome Resources’ (ASX:WR1) Adina Lithium Project, and next door to Winsome’s Tilly Lithium Project and Loyal Lithium’s (ASX:LLI) Trieste Lithium Project.

Pinnacle has acquired the interest from Electrification and Decarbonization AIE, which will also stump up US$500,000 in offtake pre-payment in consideration for offtake rights to 25% of any minerals extracted from Adina East Project.

The vertically-integrated dairy group Australian Dairy Nutritionals (ASX:AHF) says it’s listed the Brucknell South farm near Nullawarre, in Victoria for sale.

The organic A2 milk produced by the farm is surplus to the raw milk requirements of the group’s Depot Road infant formula manufacturing facility and will not impact production of the Ocean Road Dairies organic A2 infant formula range at the site.

Battery Minerals (ASX:BAT), jumped early on the news it’s entered into a binding agreement to acquire the advanced Spur Gold project, in the heart of the highly prospective Lachlan Fold Belt.

BAT says Spur’s got multiple epithermal gold targets including near term, high impact drill targets, down-dip from open historic drill intercepts previously reported by Golden Cross Resources (ASX:GCR)

And PPK Group (ASX:PPK) collected over 40%, after its subsidiary, BNNT Technology, announced it would significantly reduce the price of its Australian-made boron nitride nanotubes (BNNT) following a series of production improvements.

Eddy Sunarto’s been super-busy and has this longer update for us all to absorb.

 

Wednesday October 18, 2023 – ASX up +0.2%

Income Asset Management Group (ASX:IAM) went and merged with Tactical Global Management (TGM), a company in which IAM already held a 25% stake, and Alpha Vista Financial Services (AVFS).

TGM and AVFS have advised that they will be ‘undertaking a strategic merger that combines their complementary intellectual property and leverages AVFS’ AI capabilities and TGM’s 25 years of asset management experience’.

TGM shareholders will receive a 10% equity stake in the merged entity, resulting in the Group holding 2.5% of that entity. In time, TGM can earn additional equity in the merged entity and cash bonuses, subject to performance hurdles.

Noxopharm (ASX:NOX) enjoyed a morning launch even Elon Musk would’ve been pleased with, adding some 50% before lunchtime after new data shows that SOF-VAC, its proprietary asset, significantly reduces mRNA-driven inflammation in animal testing.

In the animal study, inflammation was reduced by around 50% when comparing the inflammation induced by mRNA alone, versus mRNA plus SOF-VAC.

This is an important finding, says NOX, as many side effects of mRNA vaccines are due to inflammation.

The company added that the ability of SOF-VAC to reduce the inflammatory side effects of mRNA has several potential benefits.

Chilean state copper titan Codelco had been eyeing a deal with Lithium Power International (ASX:LPI) in what looks a great deal for LPI shareholders.

LPI has now confirmed it’s entered into a binding scheme implementation deed with Corporación Nacional del Cobre de Chile (Codelco). It’s a deal that will see Codelco acquire 100% of LPI’s issued capital, valuing the company at approximately A$385 million.

Prospect Resources (ASX:PSC) also jumped this morning after reporting a significant new discovery from the Phase 3 diamond drilling programme at its Step Aside Lithium Project in Zimbabwe.

Two scout drill holes returned wide intercepts of strongly mineralised pegmatite from shallow depths, with hole CDD055 returning assays showing 23.08m at 1.03% Li2O from 45m, including 11m at 1.51% Li2O from 54m.

 

Thursday October 19, 2023 – ASX down -1.4%

Whitebark Energy (ASX:WBE) pared back from its morning gains of circa 100% but still managed to close out much better off than the rest of the market, after  revealing its Wizard Lake oil and gas field has returned to production.

The company reports that workovers at Rex-4 and Rex-1 have been completed, and the field has returned to production effective October 18 with Rex-1, Rex-2 and Rex-4 collectively producing 50 bopd and 300 mcf/d (100 boe/d).

Making a sharp move in late trade was Mighty Kingdom (ASX:MKL), which earlier this week informed the market of  ‘several unsolicited enquiries’ about getting taken out for lunch.

“In response to this interest, the board of Mighty Kingdom has decided to undertake a strategic review process of the company with the view of maximising shareholder value,’’ the game developer said.

“As part of this review process, MKL is considering all options with respect to its business including, but not limited to, a whole or partial divestment, joint venture arrangement or a strategic investment into the company to further growth and development.”

Mighty Kingdom also said it had conducted a share placement to raise $1m, with director and sophisticated investors taking up the shares at 1c a pop. Shares were being snapped up for 1.2c late in the day, a 27% increase.

Also trimming gains earlier was Tesoro Resources (ASX:TSO) up 20% after a near 30% burst, on news that the company has delineated a new large outcropping gold anomaly which has never been drilled at Drone Hill, with wide outcropping intersections of up to 47m.

The newly-discovered surface mineralisation is confirmed to extend at least 750m west and 380m south of the Ternera Gold Deposit in Chile, and assay results for initial eight scout holes at Kitsune returned prospective lithology and alteration with a similar geological setting to Ternera.

 

Friday October 13, 2023 – ASX down -1.1%

Despite a dismal day overall for the ASX, there were some standouts on Friday among the small cappers – some of them without any earth-shattering news behind them (other than a handful of AGM announcements, which are about as earth-shattering a nerf ball).

Top of the table was Balkan Mining and Minerals (ASX:BMM), which popped more than 19% for the day through the simple expedience of telling the market that the drills are spinning again at the company’s Gorge lithium project.

BMM announced on Wednesday that it had intersected visible spodumene at the Nelson pegmatite in the very first drill hole from the Gorge lithium project, adding that it’s “only the start of our drilling activity targeting pegmatite occurrences which have been identified from field work”.

Nyrada (ASX:NYR) and BCAL Diagnostics (ASX:BDX) both added around 19% despite having little to say other than sending out invites to their upcoming AGMs.

And Tesoro Gold (ASX:TSO) continued on its merry way into the happier end of market movements, putting another 14.5% on top of its recent against-the-grain gains, thanks to the company defining a solid new gold discovery at Drone Hill, west of the Ternera gold deposit in Tesoro’s El Zorro gold project in Chile.

 

IPOs this week

Nido Education (ASX:NDO)

As expected, Nido Education (ASX:NDO) kicked off this week, listing on 16 October after raising $99.2m at $1.00, leaving the early childcare company at a market capitalisation of $219.5 million.

While it didn’t exactly set the world on fire out of the gate, Nido’s done pretty well against some serious headwinds this week, and is set to land at the end of its first handful of sessions at around $0.975, around 2.6% higher than listing price.

 

CGN Resources (ASX:CGR)

West Arunta explorer CGN Resources also made its debut this week, listing on 18 October off the back of a $10 million raise at $0.20 per share, and a market cap of around $182 million.

Again, market conditions have been less than ideal for the company’s first few days on the bourse, and its currently trading at $0.975, a 2.5% dip since going live.

 

Upcoming ASX IPO listings

All dates are sourced from the ASX website. They can, and frequently do, change without notice.

 

Freedom Care Group (ASX:FCG)

Expected listing: October 19, 2023
IPO: $3.2m at $0.20

 

Great Dirt Resources (ASX:GR8)

Expected listing: October 23, 2023
IPO: $5m at $0.20

 

Midwest Lithium (ASX:MWL)

Expected listing: November 08, 2023
IPO: $17m at $0.25

 

Golden Globe Resources (ASX:GGR)

Expected listing: November 09, 2023
IPO: $6m at $0.20

 

Far Northern Resources (ASX:FNR)

Expected listing: November 24, 2023
IPO: $6m at $0.20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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