• The ASX closed modestly higher on Tuesday
  • Gina Rinehart upped her stake in lithium stock Liontown
  • WA billionaire Tim Goyder has rebuilt his stake in Chalice

 

The ASX swung from gains to losses, to gains again as it finished 0.2% higher on Tuesday.

Traders weighed the Westpac-Melbourne Institute survey, which shows Aussie consumer sentiment slipping by 1.5% to 79.7 in September.

Miners and Healthcare led the gainers, while Energy was top of the losers’ list.

Coal stock Yancoal (ASX:YAN), along with oil stocks Santos (ASX:STO) and Woodside (ASX:WDS) fell around 2% each.

China-sensitive stocks like Fortescue (ASX:FMG) and Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) gained.

Shares in Tokyo and Hong Kong also rose today as China’s economic outlook shows signs of improvement.

Several positive developments have emerged recently in the world’s second biggest economy, including increased credit demand, easing in deflationary pressures and  a strengthened yuan.

Franklin Templeton’s CEO Jenny Johnson says that pessimism on China is overhyped.

“You are talking about the second-largest economy,” she told the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore.

“You are talking about an economy that generates more engineers than any other any country in the world every year, and so from innovation I think there is going to be opportunities.”

 

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) rose 0.3% after Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting upped its stake in the lithium miner and says it may seek a seat on the board.

Earlier, Rinehart said she has not ruled out a rival takeover bid for Liontown to block Albemarle’s $6.6 billion bid.

 

BIG CAP LOSERS

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Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN) fell 2.5% after news that WA billionaire Tim Goyder has used a big dive in Chalice’s share price to rebuild his stake, taking his holding in the Julimar owner to more than 10%. Goyder believes the once red-hot company was oversold in a negative response to last month’s Gonneville Ni-Cu-PGE scoping study.

Now read: Ground Breakers: Goyder splurges $24m on cheap Chalice; Woodlawn delivers copper-zinc goods for Beament

Viva Energy (ASX:VEA) dropped over 6% to a 2-month low after the AFR reported that Swiss-based Vitol was considering selling its Viva stake in a $500 million minimum block trade.

Santos (ASX:STO) fell 2% after it secured a debt offering of $US850 million in a 10-year bond sold to US investors.