Strong buying sentiment seen on Wall Street on Friday helped the local market kick the week off on a strong note, after the ASX 200 rose 102.6 points or 1.54%, to 6779.4. All sectors and roughly 87 per cent of stocks gained ground. Miners did most of the heavy lifting, with the sector rising by 2.5 per cent. Gains across the Big 4 banks supported a 1 per cent rally in the Financials sector. Energy stocks climbed 0.7 per cent, helped largely by oil producers Woodside Energy (WDS) and Santos (STO) both rising for a third straight day. The Tech sector snapped a three day losing streak after climbing 2.25 per cent.
The Material sector, which was up by as much as 4.2 per cent earlier in the session, gave back some of its gains to finish 2.5 per cent higher. This comes after the sector posted its second straight weekly decline, weakened by a slump in the iron ore price, and negative reactions to quarterly updates issued by BHP Group (BHP), Rio Tinto (RIO) and Fortescue Metals (FMG). Mining stocks today however staged a dramatic recovery, occupying eight spots among the top 10 best performers on the ASX200. The top performer today, Novonix (NVX), rose another 33.5 per cent,
having already climbed 23 per cent in the prior week after being selected to potentially receive a US$150 million grant.
Oz Minerals (OZL) fell 1.2 per cent after releasing its quarterly results. The gold and copper miner posted annual decreases in both its gold and copper productions, and a 78 per cent annual increase in its all-in-sustaining costs (AISC). It also downgraded its FY22 gold production guidance by 3.4 per cent to 203,000-220,000 ounces, and increased its AISC forecasts by 8.9 per cent to US175—US195 cents per pound.
South32 (S32), despite climbing by as much as 3.2 per cent, finished with a loss of 1.9 per cent. The miner released a quarterly report, outlining annual declines across its alumina, silver and metallurgical coal production. Although it expects its copper production to grow by 13 per cent in FY23, it cut its coal production forecasts by 5 per cent.
Pilbara Minerals (PLS) was a standout today after its shares climbed 6.1 per cent. The lithium company said that it will sell an additional 5,000 dmt of spodumene concentrate, at a price (2.2 per cent higher than its previous contract) of US$7,255 per dmt.
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New Hope Corporation (NHC) fell 4.3 per cent after its shares traded ex-dividend today. The coal miner’s 56 cents-per-share dividend, which includes a 25 cents-per-share special dividend, is scheduled to be paid to eligible shareholders on November 8.
On the economic front, Chinese economic data, as measured by GDP, expanded by 3.9 per cent in the September quarter from a year ago, above economist’s estimates for 3.3 per cent, and stronger than the 0.4 per cent growth rate in the June quarter.
Today, 3.2bn shares were traded, worth $5.9bn. 811 stocks rose, 542 fell & 419 finished unchanged.
Originally published by Divik Nigam – (Author) CommSec
