by Lauren Evans
The Australian sharemarket had its best week since mid-March as recession fears eased. Friday’s session was spent in positive territory thanks to strong gains in the resources space. Energy led the pack, up 2.1 per cent, with materials up 1.2 per cent. Communication services and financials were the only two sectors to close lower.
At the closing bell, the S&P/ASX 200 was 0.5 per cent or 30 points higher at 6,678. Over the past four trading days, it closed 2.1 per cent or 138 points higher.
The best-performing stock in the ASX 200 was Life360 (ASX:360), closing 14.3 per cent higher at $4.15. This was followed by St Barbara (ASX:SBM), up 8.4 per cent to 90 cents, and Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR), up 7.4 per cent to $1.02.
The worst-performing stock in the ASX 200 was Orora (ASX:ORA), closing 5.9 per cent lower at $3.33. This was followed Imugene (ASX:IMU), down 3.3 per cent to 23 cents and Collins Foods (ASX:CKF), down 2.6 per cent to $10.12.
Moving on to energy stocks, Beach Energy (ASX:BPT) rose 4.3 per cent to $1.71, Santos (ASX:STO) lifted 2.5 per cent to $7.07 and Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS) rose 2.3 per cent to $30.96.
Terracom (ASX:TER) jumped 7.4 per cent to 61 cents on news that the coal miner’s executive chairman Craig Ransley has retired, while fellow lithium miner Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) rose 7.1 per cent to $2.36.
Heavyweight miners lifted, led by BHP (ASX:BHP), up 0.7 per cent to $39.16. Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) was up 0.3 per cent to $97.44 and Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG) closed 0.4 per cent higher at $17.27.
Gold miners performed well, with Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) rising 2.1 per cent to $2.45 and Northern Star (ASX:NST) closing 1 per cent higher at $7.00.
Elsewhere, major banks dragged. Commonwealth (ASX:CBA) dipped 0.5 per cent to $92.59, ANZ Banking (ASX:ANZ) fell 0.4 per cent lower at $22.70, Westpac (ASX:WBC) closed 0.3 per cent lower at $19.95 and National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) closed 0.1 per cent lower at $28.11.
Local economic news
Business turnover increased in 11 of the 13 selected industries in May, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The industry with the largest rise in turnover was electricity, gas, water and waste services, which increased by 22.9 per cent over the month from April. The increase in turnover in the industry coincided with higher electricity and gas wholesale prices, given rising input costs for producing energy and generator outages.
Company news
Lithium miner Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL) will further develop its Italian projects after signing an agreement with Italy’s largest geothermal energy producer Enel Green Power. Shares closed 5.9 per cent higher at $5.78.
St Barbara (ASX:SBM) posted a strong June quarter, saying that its three provinces have achieved the 2022 financial year guidance. Shares closed 9 per cent higher at 90 cents.
Neometals (ASX:NMT) completed the class 3 engineering cost study component of its Vanadium recovery study, which confirmed the potential for lowest quartile operating costs. Shares closed 5.1 per cent higher at $1.04.
New Zealand Coastal Seafoods (ASX:NZS) commercialised a new hydrolysed marine collagen powder to the nutraceuticals market after developing a less costly process for collagen extraction from Ling maw. Shares closed 25 per cent higher at $0.0050.
Magellan Financial (ASX:MFG) experienced net outflows of $5.2 billion during the June quarter, which comprised net retail outflows of $1.7 billion and net institutional outflows of $3.5 billion. Shares closed 3 per cent lower at $11.90.
Australian resources company TNG (ASX:TNG) received a letter of support from Export Finance Australia, that considered the provision of up to $300 million in debt funding for its Mount Peake project in the Northern Territory. Shares closed 29.4 per cent higher at $0.066.
Eastern Resources (ASX:EFE) announced “outstanding” results from its Trigg Hill lithium project in Western Australia. Shares closed 15.4 per cent higher at $0.030.
Neuren Pharmaceuticals (ASX:NEU) appointed Liza Squires, MD to the new position of chief medical officer, based in the United States. Shares closed 0.5 per cent higher at $3.94.
Jatcorp (ASX:JAT) appointed Li Yang as chief financial officer, replacing Jennifer Liu who resigned. Shares closed 6.7 per cent lower at $0.014.
Futures
The Dow Jones futures are pointing to a fall of 123 points.
The S&P 500 futures are pointing to a fall of 19 points.
The Nasdaq futures are pointing to a fall of 61 points.
The SPI futures are pointing to a rise of 29 points when the market next opens.
Asian markets
Japan’s Nikkei has gained 0.4 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has lost 0.02 per cent.
China’s Shanghai Composite has lost 0.1 per cent.
Wall Street
Over the past week, the Dow Jones closed 0.9 per cent higher, the S&P500 closed almost 2 per cent higher and the Nasdaq Composite closed 4.3 per cent higher.
Commodities and the dollar
Gold is trading at US$1742.56 an ounce.
Iron ore is 2.2 per cent higher at US$114.85 a ton.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a rise of 0.5 per cent.
Light crude is trading $0.30 higher at US$91.20 a barrel.
One Australian dollar is buying 68.27 US cents.
