by Paul Sanger
The ASX closed slightly higher in Thursday trading after yesterday’s $60 billion sell-off, which was sparked by fears of more aggressive rises in interest rates.
That followed a return to calm on Wall Street, which saw its biggest losses since 2020 on Tuesday after consumer prices rose in North America last month.
At the closing bell, the S&P/ASX 200 was 0.21 per cent or 14.30 points higher at 6842.90.
Futures
The Dow Jones futures are pointing to a rise of 14 points.
The S&P 500 futures are pointing to a rise of 1.25 points.
The Nasdaq futures are pointing to a fall of 4.50 points.
The SPI futures are pointing to a rise of 10 points when the market next opens.
Best and worst performers
The best-performing sector was Energy, up 3.72 per cent. The worst-performing sector was Real Estate Investment Trusts, down 0.93 per cent.
The best-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN), closing 9.14 per cent higher at $1.85. It was followed by shares in New Hope Corporation (ASX:NHC) and Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC).
The worst-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Lake Resources (ASX:LKE), closing 12.74 per cent lower at $0.93. It was followed by shares in South32 (ASX:S32) and City Chic Collective (ASX:CCX).
Asian markets
Shares in the Asia-Pacific have mildly risen after Wednesday’s negative session. US indexes inched higher overnight and the producer price index showed a decrease in wholesale prices of 0.1 per cent in August amid inflation fears.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan has risen 0.16 per cent and the Topix index is 0.15 per cent higher. The Japanese yen is trading at 143 against the dollar after a reported “rate check” by the Bank of Japan.
In South Korea, the Kospi has added 0.11 per cent
Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite has gained 0.35 per cent, and the Shenzhen Component is fractionally higher. The Hang Seng index has added 0.45 per cent.
In China, the central bank kept its one-year medium-term lending facility unchanged at 2.75 per cent, as expected.
Australia’s unemployment rate for August came in at 3.5 per cent, slightly higher than July.
Australian jobless rate unexpectedly rises, supporting views RBA will slow pace of tightening
Australian headline employment rose 33.5K in August, roughly in-line with consensus for a 35.0K increase and rebounding from July’s surprise 40.9K contraction. Result driven by full-time employment, which offset drop in part-time jobs. Main development was the unemployment rate unexpectedly rising to 3.5 per cent from 3.4 per cent (also consensus), marking the first increase in unemployment in 10 months. Initial takeaways noted rise in unemployment rate strengthens case for RBA to slow pace of tightening to 25 bp next month. Recall Governor Lowe last week said the case for slowdown in pace of tightening strengthens as cash rate rises. RBA has also emphasised that policy decisions will be guided by incoming data and evolving outlook for inflation and labour market. Markets may get a more detailed read on RBA rate guidance in August meeting minutes due out on 20-Sep.
China property stocks rally amid hopes for relaxation of housing cubs
China property stocks outperformed Thursday following a report in Yicai that noted Guangzhou city will allow developers to offer discounts of up to 20 per cent on new homes from 6 per cent previously, spurring hopes other top-tier cities will follow with similar relaxation measures (Reuters). Comes after President Xi was reported to have urged reasonable relaxation of housing curbs as soon as possible at a closed door meeting in late August. Bloomberg discussed how local Chinese governments have implemented a variety of measures this year to support their housing markets, such as improving financing conditions for local developers, easing purchase restrictions, and providing home-buying subsidies. However, some analysts remain sceptical measures will revive a property market where house prices and home sales are contracting under the weight of Covid lockdowns, tight liquidity, and weak homebuyer confidence.
Company news
Kingston Resources (ASX:KSN) has reported that gold production at its Mineral Hill Mine in NSW has increased significantly in the first two months of the September quarter. The ramp-up of gold production from the Tailings Storage Facility processing operation has delivered a monthly gold production record in the month of July, which was subsequently exceeded in August to deliver a further production record. Commenting on the production, Kingston Resources Managing Director Andrew Corbett said: “Most notably, production from the TSF Project has delivered continuous monthly gold production records in July and August, and we are pleased to see grade and recoveries improve as expected as mining moves deeper in the tailings facility.” Shares closed 4.55 per cent higher at 9.2 cents.
Provaris Energy (ASX:PV1) has executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Total Eren, a leading French-based renewable energy Independent Power Producer (IPP), to further their co-operation on the development of solutions to transport green hydrogen projects to Asia and Europe where the application of Provaris’ compressed hydrogen storage and transport supply chain can be applied. Martin Carolan, Provaris CEO commented: “Our discussions with Total Eren over time have identified a strong alignment on the commercial and technical benefits of compression for the storage and transport of hydrogen, and we look forward to a closer relationship to facilitate and accelerate the delivery of the first fleet of GH2 Carriers.” Shares closed 4.76 per cent higher at 6.6 cents.
Caspin Resources (ASX:CPN) today announced significant rhodium mineralisation has been found at the Yarawindah Brook Project in Western Australia, only 100km north of Perth. Caspin’s CEO, Greg Miles, commented: “This is an outstanding result that clearly celebrates Serradella as a major PGE discovery. Our best drill result just got better. When we discovered rhodium in our initial discovery hole we commenced a large re-assay program in the hope that further mineralisation would be found. This exercise has surpassed our expectations and with such high-grade results, clearly differentiates Yarawindah Brook from other PGE projects.” Shares closed 36.92 per cent higher at 89 cents
Commodities and the dollar
Gold is trading at US$1688.42 an ounce.
Iron ore is 3.3 per cent lower at US$100.80 a tonne.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a rise of 0.48 per cent.
Light crude is trading $0.09 lower at US$87.27 a barrel.
One Australian dollar is buying 67.52 US cents.
