Large cap shares such as QBE Insurance Group Ltd (ASX: QBE) and Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH) may have made strong gains on Wednesday, but these gains paled in comparison to some that were made in the small-cap space.
Here are two small-cap shares that pushed significantly higher today:
The Battery Minerals Ltd (ASX: BAT) share price rallied almost 18% to 10 cents after the graphite producer announced its third new offtake agreement in the less than a week. Today's offtake agreement, the fourth it has signed in total, is with specialist spherical graphite and anode production company Qingdao Keshuo New Materials Technology. This means 80% of its forecast annual production at its Montepuez graphite project in Mozambique has now been snapped up.
The company aims to commence production by December 2018, with its first shipments planned for the March quarter of 2019. The initial annual output is expected to be 50,000 tonnes, but management is aiming to grow this to 100,000 tonnes in the future. As a comparison, Syrah Resources Ltd (ASX: SYR) expects to produce 350,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate per annum at its Balama project.
The Cynata Therapeutics Ltd (ASX: CYP) share price finished the day 9% higher at 73 cents, meaning its shares have now rallied 30% since this time last week. Cynata has released two positive announcements this week that have got investors excited. The first was a memorandum of understanding with Celularity, Inc. for the commercial evaluation of its Cymerus production technology to be use with Celularity's therapeutic stem cell technologies.
The second was that the first patient in its Cohort B study has been treated with its first mesenchymal stem cell product for steroid-resistant acute graft-versus-host disease. The clinical trial was given the go-ahead after encouraging safety and efficacy data from the first patient cohort. I think both developments are extremely positive and I can't say I'm surprised to see its share price rocket higher. I think Cynata has enormous potential and is certainly worth a closer look today.
