ASX Large Caps: Miners in focus as Pilbara jumps 5pc; ASIC calls out Vanguard for greenwashing

ASX climbed 0.4% on Tuesday ahead of the Fed’s rates decision
Miners lifted, offset by broad brushed losses in other sectors
ASIC will take Vanguard to court over greenwashing

Local shares jumped by almost 0.5% on Tuesday as broad-based losses were offset by gains in the Mining sector.

Miners climbed on the back of Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS)’s 6% jump following its quarterly update (more details below).

Fortescue Metals (ASX:FMG) also rallied 5% as Twiggy Forrest remained in the US to promote his green hydrogen initiative.

BHP (ASX:BHP) rose 4% as iron-ore futures traded around 1.5% higher on the Singapore exchange.

Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) however extended yesterday’s losses by another 4% after declaring that its Finniss lithium mine in the NT would significantly underperform the initial DFS.

Elsewhere, ASIC has accused fund manager Vanguard of greenwashing and misleading investors in its $1bn Ethically Conscious Global Aggregate Bond Index Fund (ASX:VEFI).

The corporate regulator said that it will take investment giant to court, as the VEFI fund rose +0.4% today.

Meanwhile, the Fed Reserve is set to make its interest rates decision later tonight.

Although a 25bp increase is already priced in, the Fed could still surprise some who are lulled into imagining that interest rates would stop climbing.

“The Fed is likely to feel emboldened to go all the way to get inflation back to its 2% target,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG.

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
MND	Monadelphous Group	13.16	5.28	213,679	$1,206,310,000
PLS	Pilbara Min Ltd	4.83	5.12	28,668,979	$13,761,680,538
SFR	Sandfire Resources	6.05	5.03	1,945,254	$2,631,697,505
CHN	Chalice Mining Ltd	5.88	5.00	1,877,923	$2,171,244,197
SYA	Sayona Mining Ltd	0.16	5.00	32,924,148	$1,532,979,637
CIA	Champion Iron Ltd	5.93	4.96	1,176,569	$2,922,141,162
PRU	Perseus Mining Ltd	1.77	4.73	2,825,370	$2,311,897,777
FMG	Fortescue Metals Grp	23.23	4.66	6,211,965	$68,322,231,530
S32	South32 Limited	3.88	4.30	12,952,979	$16,908,938,945
LFG	Liberty Fin Group	3.89	4.16	38,973	$1,133,188,446
MIN	Mineral Resources.	71.13	4.13	821,598	$13,284,972,792
BHP	BHP Group Limited	46.10	3.96	6,497,638	$224,618,483,453
ILU	Iluka Resources	10.89	3.57	724,685	$4,477,394,591
RIO	Rio Tinto Limited	119.21	3.44	1,194,649	$42,782,668,664
APM	APM Human Services	2.02	3.32	382,999	$1,793,090,704
DHG	Domain Holdings Aus	3.91	3.31	619,891	$2,387,664,038
YAL	Yancoal Aust Ltd	5.12	3.13	1,850,834	$6,549,379,608
AKE	Allkem Limited	15.53	3.09	3,621,770	$9,603,130,775

Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) continues to print cash in the June quarter, boosting its bank balance by 24% to $3.3 billion after selling 176,300t of spodumene in the fourth quarter, an increase of 22%.

PLS sold that cargo at US$3256/dmt on a 5.3% Li2O basis — a grade profile becoming more common at current prices due to the higher recoveries at that level — equivalent to US$3714/dmt on a 6% basis. That was 33% down on the March quarter.

NOW READ: Ground Breakers: Everyone wants a chunk of Pilbara Minerals’ lithium expansion

Engineering group Monadelphous (ASX:MND) rose after securing a major construction contract with Albemarle associated with the Kemerton lithium hydroxide plant, valued at approximately $200 million.

The contract includes front-end pyromet structural, mechanical, piping, electrical and instrumentation works associated with two new lithium processing trains.

Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) has completed the transaction with Strickland Metals (ASX:STK) for the acquisition of the Strickland’s interests in the tenements comprising the Millrose gold project.

Strickland has received a further $39 million in cash, and has been issued 1.5 million fully paid ordinary NST shares.

BIG CAP LOSERS

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
MSB	Mesoblast Limited	1.19	-6.67	3,179,638	$1,038,111,152
DMP	Domino Pizza Enterpr	47.19	-5.24	334,977	$4,436,702,020
CCP	Credit Corp Group	22.11	-4.20	179,839	$1,570,983,036
CXO	Core Lithium	0.69	-4.17	59,985,517	$1,338,132,092
NUF	Nufarm Limited	5.38	-3.15	755,615	$2,111,945,679
INA	Ingenia Group	4.00	-2.91	368,372	$1,679,243,048
HLS	Healius	2.87	-2.71	749,858	$1,680,607,392
360	Life360 Inc.	7.62	-2.56	309,880	$1,567,865,512
SGR	The Star Ent Grp	1.06	-2.31	3,122,303	$1,748,175,347
NAN	Nanosonics Limited	4.65	-2.31	293,573	$1,439,023,018
CMW	Cromwell Prop	0.55	-2.21	1,093,197	$1,479,659,685
MGR	Mirvac Group	2.28	-2.15	5,666,125	$9,193,854,306
MMS	McMillan Shakespeare	18.31	-2.09	104,000	$1,302,324,549
DDR	Dicker Data Limited	7.61	-2.06	350,177	$1,399,875,826
PXA	Pexagroup	12.65	-1.86	562,768	$2,285,729,407
BOQ	Bank of Queensland.	5.83	-1.85	1,912,677	$3,903,871,540

Strike Energy (ASX:STK) released a statement to confirm that it is pursuing an acquisition of Talon Energy (ASX:TPD).

Strike has proposed 0.4586 Strike shares for every Talon share held, and an ownership interest in Talon’s Mongolian assets pro rata to their shareholdings in Talon.