ASX Small Caps and Weekly IPO Wrap: It will all not be over by Christmas, but take some Solis that lithium is dug in

• The ASX200 ends about 18pts or 0.3% higher on Friday, ends week 0.3% lower
• Wall Street bull run sweeps up local bourse, S&P5oo
• Dual listed Solis and medtech Limeade dominate small cap returns

The brave little Aussie bourse has gone into the King’s Birthday holiday weekend by ending a three-day losing streak, the benchmark closing out Friday around 0.3% higher.

For the week however, the ASX200 index was cleft of -0.25%.

The S&P ASX Emerging Companies index (XEC) – the benchmark for Aussie micro-cap companies – was 0.10% higher.

Locally, IT companies tracked further upward momentum on Wall Street overnight where the US S&P 500 joined the tech heavy into bull territory as investors piled back into tech stocks ahead of the Fed meeting next week.

Wall Street set a decent overnight pace as investors celebrated a happy surge in jobless claims, which in turn took the puff out of bond yields.

This was the week which clarified a silent tug of war befuddling local traders.

The ASX200 twice tested its 200-day moving average scootering near the 7120 point mark despite a forlorn week of local data which reaffirmed the “5R Theory” of ‘Real Rising Rates and Recessionary Risk’. But rather than fall in a heap, the benchmark is being dragged into near reluctant gains by the pulling strength of US markets led by the Nasdaq.
 

RBA strikes again with another 25bps rate hike

The Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) economic team have readjusted their betting odds on the Aussie-Recession-in-Waiting to a fence-sitting 50/50. As they’ve been telling anyone willing to listen – the delayed nature of the Reserve Bank’s 12 straight interest rate rises will eventually bite and will likely leave a mark.

CBA also slashed their Aussie growth assumptions.

Gareth Aird et al now reckon Q4 GDP  will slouch in at just 0.7%.

On the upside – and sadly this economy is no icositetragon of plus side options right now – the CBA did push out their views around rate cuts following one last +0.25% increase, “probably in August.”

Previously CBA was forecasting the cycle to be done and in reverse ahead of Christmas. This week changed all that. The bank is now suggesting the RBA won’t be pulling the cord on the cash rate until 1Q24.

Anyway. The market participants which love The Windsors (so not you Queensland and WA) will be closed this coming Monday – as indeed will be the market itself, in honour of the Queen’s son’s Birthday.

The week on the ground saw a lot of movement in the land of lithium.

Latin Resources (ASX:LRS) called out an imminent resource upgrade its Colina lithium deposit, part of the broader Salinas lithium project in Brazil.

The company has wrapped up resource definition drilling, with a total of 135 diamond drill holes for 39,033m completed and expects this drilling to ‘significantly expand’ the existing 13.3Mt at1.2% Li2O resource.

And it’s not alone in ASX stocks pushing well into Latin America…

• Latin America’s #lithium is the key to hitting global EV targets, experts say
• this means investment inflow into mining friendly countries like Brazil and Argentina
• #ASX Stocks to Watch: $LEL, $PNN, $LKE, $AGY, $GLN, $PL3, $PUR, $LRS, $OCN, $SLM

https://t.co/gxBuNrZBxM

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) June 6, 2023

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for the week:

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

My word, Limeade (ASX:LME) won the week by a with a surgical strike of more than +300% on Friday morning after the company announced it’s getting snapped up by US-based WebMD Health Services.

Our Nadine McGrath has all the details here.

She says the offer is a staggering 325% premium on Limeade’s last trading price, and a 217% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP) to June 7.

According to the company’s breathless announcement, the offer price implies a fully diluted market capitalisation for Limeade of ~$111.5 million and an enterprise value of ~$112 million.

Solis Minerals (ASX:SLM) (TSX.V: SLMN) is lithium’s ‘flavour of the week, month and YTD.

Taking Solis has never been more apt, as our Reuben The Fingerless Adams, wrote this week.

Dual listed and whole fisted, SLM is up some +450% (and counting) as word leaked of its purchase of the Jaguar lithium project in Brazil late last month.

SLM has now got firm commitments to raise $8.1m at a modest ~7% discount to the last traded price of A$0.59 and 57% premium to a 10-day VWAP of A$0.35.

As Reuben points… er highlights – Jaguar, located in Bahia state, reportedly boasts rock chips grading up to 4.95% Li2O along a 1km long, 50m wide spodumene-rich pegmatite body.

“The Jaguar pegmatite hosts confirm LCT-bearing pegmatites with some of the coarsest and most abundant spodumene occurrences I have seen,” SLM incredibly experienced executive director and ex Delta Lithium (ASX:DLI) boss Matt Boyes mused earlier this week.

Accordingly, SLM is up well over 900% in 2023 so far.

And have a good fortnight off, Reuben’s remaining body. Stay away from sharp edges.

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the least-best performing ASX small cap stocks for the week

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

ASX IPOs THIS WEEK

No one’s seen an IPO. I miss them.

Enjoy your King Charles Birthday weekend. We’ll be keeping it real, so check in on the site for all you need to know between now and ahead of the ASX open on Tuesday 13 at 10am.

Huzzah!

The post ASX Small Caps and Weekly IPO Wrap: It will all not be over by Christmas, but take some Solis that lithium is dug in appeared first on Stockhead.

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