Local buying sentiment, supported by a rally on Wall Street overnight, helped the Aussie market rise for a second straight day, after the ASX 200 added 0.3 per cent or 20.9 points to 6800.1. Nine (of 11) sectors and 58 per cent of stocks in the ASX 200 gained ground. Miners and Financial stocks rallied by 0.18 per cent and 0.38 per cent, respectively, while the Energy sector shed 0.7 per cent – partly driven by a decline in the oil price overnight. Lithium
miners were once again amongst some of the best performers today, with shares of Core Lithium (CXO), Pilbara Minerals (PLS) and Allkem (ALK) all rallied by at least 5 per cent.
Tomorrow, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is scheduled to hand down its employment update. According to a survey conducted by Bloomberg, economists expect the unemployment rate to remain steady at 3.5 per cent, with 25,000 jobs added (previous: 33,500). The labour market update may influence the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) interest rate decision.
BHP Group (BHP) fell 1 per cent after releasing a quarterly update this morning. It outlined an annual improvement in its copper, iron ore and nickel production, but said that its coal production volume declined due to ‘significant wet weather’. It has retained its production and unit-cost guidance for FY23.
In its quarterly report, Whitehaven Coal (WHC) noted a 22 per cent slip in its coal production, driven in part by ‘wet weather and flood related road closures’. The coal miner however, said that its realised average coal price more than tripled to $581 per tonne, and managed to generate $1.55 billion in the quarter. WHC has left its FY23 guidance unchanged. Shares of WHC rose 1.1 per cent.
Beach Energy (BPT) released a quarterly production report. Its oil production, sales volume, revenue and realised oil price all fell over the quarter. BPT reasons that a decline in its quarterly production was partly driven by a ‘natural field decline’, flooding, and unplanned outages. BPT shares shed 1 per cent.
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Novonix (NVX) has entered into a trading halt and ‘expects to make an announcement to the ASX in connection with a material funding agreement’. Yesterday, NVX was the best performer after its shares rose 19 per cent – its best day since January 2021.
After informing shareholders of a potential cybersecurity incident last week, Medibank (MPL) has once again entered into a trading halt. It ‘expects to make an announcement to the ASX shortly with a further update regarding the recent cyber incident’.
In the US tonight, Tesla and The Procter & Gamble Company are forecast to release their earnings result.
Today, 3.1bn shares were traded, worth $6.6bn. 718 stocks rose, 601 fell & 416 finished unchanged.
Originally published by Divik Nigam – (Author), CommSec
