The Aussie sharemarket lifted for a third straight day, and finished near session highs, with the ASX 200 up by 70.3.points or 1.02 per cent, to 6964.5. 10 (of 11) sectors finished in positive territory, with Miners (up 2.2 per cent) doing most of the heavy lifting. The Financial sector improved its gains throughout the course of the session and finished 1.1 per cent higher, with the Big 4 banks all finishing in positive territory. Tech stocks rose for a fifth straight day (longest winning streak since Nov 2021), adding another 1.5 per cent.
Synlait Milk’s (SM1) registration for The a2 Milk Company’s (A2M) China label infant milk formula product has been renewed by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). This will allow SM1 to manufacture A2M’s China label product until February 2023. Shares of A2M rose by 2.5 per cent, while shares of SM1 added 0.96 per cent.
Liontown Resources (LTR) has executed a Letter of Award with Zenith Energy, to supply electricity to its Kathleen Valley Lithium Project, for a period of 15 years. The letter enables Zenith to ‘undertake planning, engineering and design works’ for a 95MW hybrid power station. LTR shares closed 3.1 per cent lower.
Toll road operator, Atlas Arteria (ALX) notes ‘media speculation’ and confirms that it is ‘participation in the competitive sale process for the Chicago Skyway toll road’. ALX however mentions that there is ‘no certainty that a transaction will eventuate’ and ‘does not propose to make further comment on this transaction until an outcome is known or it ceases to be involved in the sale process’. ALX shares fell 2.1 per cent – their most since late July.
Several companies have entered into trading halts today. This includes Link Group (LNK), which is expecting to make an announcement associated with an update on the regulatory approvals related to its scheme of arrangement with Dye & Durham Corporation. Imugene (IMU) has entered into a trading halt and has informed shareholders of ‘a planned capital raising to facilitate investment from two new institutional investors’. The Star Entertainment Group (SGR) has also put its shares on halt ‘pending the public release’ of the report based on a review undertaken by Mr Adam Bell SC.
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3.9bn shares were traded, worth $6.5bn. 767 stocks rose, 628 fell & 420 finished unchanged.
In the US tonight, consumer inflation expectations data is released.
Looking ahead this week, inflation data for the US will be released on Tuesday – headline inflation (monthly) is expected to ease by 0.1 per cent while annual inflation is estimated to fall by 0.5 per cent to 8.0 per cent. Local unemployment data will be released on Thursday. The unemployment rate is forecast to remain steady at 3.4 per cent, with 35,000 jobs expected to be added.
Originally published by Divik Nigam – (Author), CommSec
