The ASX handed back Tuesday’s gains on a red Wednesday after yet another tech sector shock panicked Wall Street, but the local bourse didn’t sink as badly as premarket traders predicted.
It appears the ASX200 has reached a relatively stable floor around 8,300 points. Don’t forget, it was 7,600 points in January.
There are reasons to be hopeful for a strong Santa Rally: Morningstar sees Australian consumer stocks enjoying strong fundamentals in the coming months with a resilient labour market providing upside. We get fresh local unemployment data tomorrow morning.
On HotCopper, around twenty thousand users were closely watching Percheron Therapeutics as it called a trading halt ahead of a capital raise, with commenters’ reactions mixed but net optimistic.
Breaking down ASX sector performance,
Financials led the charge up point 0.26% lifted by Bank of Queensland, and the only other sector in the green was real estate, up point 0.2%.
Staples and IT both led fallers losing just over a percent each, followed by Utilities just under one percent.
Gold miner Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) jumped 6.6% after the company increased its cash balance in the September quarter by 20% over the June quarter
Gold producers broadly have enjoyed a solid run lately on the back of record gold prices.
Evolution closed at $5.01 flat.
Woodside (ASX:WDS) jumped point .9% after posting a record September quarter for oil production boosted by its newish facilities in West African nation Senegal.
Production jumped 20% versus June; the company will also de-list off the London Stock Exchange, citing low volumes.
Woodside last traded at $24.93.
In financials, Bank of Queensland (ASX:BOQ) jumped 6.5% on eye-catching profit growth in its latest annual report, even after reducing its dividend from 21c to 17c.
While profits jumped 130%, the bank also tucked away a warning RBA rate cuts would see its Net Interest Margin decrease. Investors appear not to care, or at least for now.
Bank of Queensland closed at $6.68.
Shareholders in Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) punished the miner for missing iron ore shipment expectations, with shares firmly in the red on Wednesday down around 1.5%.
This comes at the same time China has been offloading a surplus of steel into global markets too hard to sell domestically.
Rio closed at $120.78.
Meanwhile, Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) and Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) copped some of the biggest losses of the day, driven in part by a note from Macquarie downgrading lithium stocks.
While the Rio-Arcadium deal caused some excitement in the sector last week, analysts for the fifth big bank aren’t so sure the rally is fundamentally sound.
Finally, casino player Skycity Entertainment (ASX:SKC) dropped -2.65% after it confirmed a penalty of $13M from a South Australian court.
That decision ultimately saw the justice satisfied Skycity Entertainment owed further casino duties.
Skycity closed at $1.28.
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