Coke cops a 4$BN loss, the ASX stock to watch and … what’s happening on the ASX

Cop that Coke

Modern day football legend Christiano Ronaldo proved this week how volatile the share market can be and how much certain influencers can affect it.

Ronaldo has 550 million social media followers. Many of them must have been invested in Coke, because when he removed two Coca-Cola bottles from view at a press conference, the soft drink giant lost $4BN in value.

That’s $4BN in market value gone quicker than you can open a Coke can.

Ronaldo is a known health fanatic who shuns carbonated drinks and alcohol.

Ironically, the bottle of water he held up to encourage kids to drink water was also owned by Coke. However, the damage was done. Coke isn’t known for its brands of water, it’s known for Coke.

Could we now see a revolution away from soft drinks?

ASX stock to watch

Mandrake Resources (ASX:MAN) began its four week drilling program this week at its PGE-nickel-copper project in the Julimar Province, 30km from the $2.75BN capped Chalice Mining’s discovery.

Drilling is expected to finish in mid-July.

This is a much-anticipated event, especially given its closeness to Chalice, whose share price has increased some 5,000% with most of that gain being attributable to the Julimar discovery and subsequent drilling.

MAN’s Newleyine prospect lies within Mandrake’s Jimperding Project and is located just 30 kilometres east of Chalice’s Julimar PGE-nickel-copper discovery.

Mandrake has identified multiple similarities to Julimar at Newleyine, including the presence of several large electromagnetic (EM) conductor plates.

Chalice delivered a massive return for early stage investors.

MAN’s ground sits just 30km east of Chalice Mines’ Julimar PGE-nickel-copper discovery.

MAN is currently capped at ~ $94M, just a fraction of Chalice’s $2.75BN market cap.

MAN’s shares have dipped this week from 23 cents to 18 cents, however there should be a lot of news over the coming weeks including assay results from the current drilling campaign.

Here’s what to expect:

• Visible sulphides in drill core? This could happen at any stage during drilling and would be an excellent result.
• Downhole EM programme: This can start once drill holes target depths have been reached, and will aim to identify any ‘off hole’ targets - which could lead to a bigger drilling programme.
• Drilling completed: Drilling is expected to take ~ 3 weeks, ending in mid-July.
• Drilling assay results: This will probably take another 3-4 weeks after drilling ends, and is where we will get the best indication of whether the drilling was a success or not.
• Further work on other targets: During drilling, we would probably expect MAN to run more EM surveys and sampling programmes with a view to identify follow up drill targets.
• Soil sampling at its NT project: MAN has another project in the NT that should generate additional newsflow.

For a more in-depth read: MAN is Drilling Now - 30km from Chalice Mining

What are the best and worst performing sectors this week?

The best performing sectors this week were Financials up over 2 per cent. Healthcare and Information Technology also up 2 per cent. The worst performing sectors were Materials down over 3 per cent followed by Communication Services, down over 1 per cent with Utilities and Energy just in the red.

The best performers in the ASX/S&P top 100 stocks include ResMed up over 9 per cent followed by Computershare up over 7 per cent and Bank of Queensland up over 5 per cent. The worst performing stocks include Northern Star Resources and Oz Minerals both down over 11 per cent followed by Downer EDI and Evolution Mining, which are both down over 7 per cent.

What's next for the Australian share market?

According to Wealth Within’s Dale Gillham, “For a second week in a row, the All Ordinaries Index has been relatively flat with the index barely in the green for the week. That said, it rose early in the week to achieve a new all-time high of 7,655 points by mid-week, which is just above my target of 7,600 points. As I said last week, while it is possible the Australian stock market could trade higher, it is wise to be cautious and it may pay to prepare for the market to fall away anytime soon.

“I still believe we are searching for the yearly high and if the market falls next week, this may be the start of the pullback I have been expecting, which is likely to be in the vicinity of 8 to 12 per cent. That said, since the COVID low in March of 2020 the market has had a mind of its own, so anything is possible.

For now my advice is to exercise caution.”

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