• ASX peaks before closing near record on Fed rate cut hopes
  • Xero up on Syft buy, Auckland Airport down after share placement
  • Microsoft announces US $60 billion buyback; Japanese stocks drop

 

The ASX briefly touched a new intraday high of 8,150 as traders grew more optimistic about a potential 50 basis point rate cut from the Fed Reserve later this week. 

By the close of the day, the benchmark ASX200 index was up 0.3%, ending just short of the record.

Overall, it was a pretty quiet day locally but overnight, both the Dow and the S&P 500 hit new record highs as traders focused on Wednesday’s Fed announcement. 

“The question in markets is whether the Fed cuts by 25bps or 50bps,” said Steve Waddington at Insight Investment. 

Waddington  pointed out that during the market turmoil of early August, the market moved to fully price a 50bps cut. 

“The subsequent market recovery and a slightly higher US Core CPI print last week saw market pricing move back towards 25bps. So, from current pricing, whatever the outcome, the surprise will be the largest in 15 years.”

In the large caps space today, Xero (ASX:XRO) jumped 2% after announcing that it was acquiring Syft Analytics, a cloud-based analytics platform, for up to $70 million.

Xero said the move aligns with its strategic priorities and aims to integrate Syft’s advanced analytics into Xero’s offerings to customers worldwide.

Auckland International Airport (ASX:AIA) dropped 2% after completing a $1.2 billion placement at $6.95 per new share, a 7% discount from the last close price. 

The funds will go towards building a new domestic jet terminal to replace its current outdated 1960s infrastructure.

Coal miner New Hope (ASX:NHC) was up 3% after its  subsidiary, Bridgeport Energy, reported net 2P (Proven and Probable) reserves of 4.4 million barrels of oil equivalent, and 2C (Best Estimate) resources of 4.9 million barrels as of July 31.

NHC said Bridgeport ’s oil projects are profitable, but significant underperformance at non-operated gas projects has led to a major downgrade in reserves.

 

What else is happening?

In the past few hours, Microsoft announced a US$60 billion stock buyback program, matching its largest-ever repurchase plan, and increased its quarterly dividend by 10% to 83 cents per share. 

The company, which has been bolstering its products with AI , had US$75.5 billion in cash as of June 30 and reported strong free cash flow in its latest fiscal quarter.

Meanwhile, Japanese stocks led a regional decline on Tuesday as traders wait for key decisions from the Fed Reserve and the Bank of Japan this week.

 The MSCI AC Asia Pacific Index fell, with the Nikkei 225 dropping around 2%. 

The yen remained steady after recent gains, with expectations that the Bank of Japan will keep rates unchanged this Friday.

Trading was closed in China, Taiwan, and South Korea for public holidays. 

 

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

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Platinum Asset Management (ASX:PTM) jumped 10% after announcing that Regal Partners, led by Phil King, has proposed a buyout offer.  If the deal proceeds, Platinum shareholders will receive 0.274 Regal shares per Platinum share and an additional 24¢ dividend from the company’s cash reserves.

The Western Australian Government has given Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN)’s Gonneville Project Strategic Project status. This means the project will receive additional support and streamlined approvals, making it easier to move forward. Located 70km northeast of Perth, the Gonneville Project aims to produce key minerals like nickel, copper, and cobalt. This designation highlights the project’s importance for the state’s economic growth and energy transition goals.

Pacific Smiles (ASX:PSQ) was up 6% after Genesis Capital’s Beam Dental Bid proposed an off-market takeover of Pacific for $1.90 per share, in cash, stock, or a combination.  Pacific Smiles’ board said it will review the offer and provide a formal recommendation to shareholders, who should await further details in the Target’s Statement before deciding on the offer.

Octava Minerals (ASX:OCT) was flying after the company announced that historical drilling from 2015/16 at its Discovery project in WA had returned significant levels of antimony, with the best of the drill results offering 3m @ 6.83% Sb from 21m including 1m @ 13.6% Sb from 22m, and 7m @ 3.27% Sb from 12m including 1m @ 11.5% from 18m.

Bigtincan (ASX:BTH) was up on news that the company has received a revised non-binding proposal from Vector Capital Management, at an offer price of $0.20 per share. Vector points out that the offer is unconditional, does not have a financing contingency and is subject only to legal due diligence and entering into binding long form documents, and Bigtincan’s board is currently weighing up its options.

Stelar Metals (ASX:SLB) was up on news of rock chip samples from its Lone Pine copper prospect, 7.5 kilometres west of the Baratta Copper Mine on the western flank of the doubly plunging Bibliando Dome. Preliminary results include rock chip assays up to 12.7% copper, with 7 of the 8 samples collected assaying over 5% copper.

Critica – formerly known as Venture Minerals (ASX:VMS) – was rising on news that regional, reconnaissance-style drilling has identified broad zones of high-grade, rare earth mineralisation, 40 kilometres to the east of the company’s flagship Jupiter Project. The results include significant values of Dysprosium and Terbium, with intercepts up to 8m @ 4,256ppm TREO occurring within broader zones of rare earth mineralisation at the site.

Petratherm (ASX:PTR) was up on news it has received firm commitments to raise $1.6M by way of a placement of new shares with funds to be used to expedite exploration on the Company’s Muckanippie Titanium Project. Drilling of the high priority Rosewood and Claypan Prospects for titanium rich heavy mineral sands scheduled to start from the second week of October, and a share purchase plan of up to $1 million will be offered to eligible retail shareholders on the same pricing terms as the placement.

Earlier, Lincoln Minerals (ASX:LML) was gaining on news that a recent field sampling program at the Company’s 100%-owned Eridani uranium project, located around an abandoned quarry site, shut down by the South Australian Government in 1944 due to the presence of high radioactivity in surface geology. Surface pXRF sampling has returned results up to 9250ppm uranium at the site, with lab assays due back in October.

Bastion Minerals (ASX:BMO) is resampling historical drill samples from the ICE prospect, which currently boasts an “historical, foreign non-JORC resource” of 4.56Mt @1.48% Cu in the Yukon Territory, Canada. The company says that the core is “in good condition and is laid out on site in an orderly manner … Reviewing and re-assaying the core is an important step towards defining a JORC-compliant resource for the project.”

 

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Antipa Minerals (ASX:AZY) has updated the resource estimate of its Minyari Dome gold-copper project in WA by 33% to 2.3Moz at 1.51g/t gold, an increase of 573,000oz from its May 2022 estimate.

The Paterson Province explorer is in the same location as the prolific Telfer gold mine where M&A activity is going gangbusters as Newmont exits most of its stakes in the gold district.

Astral Resources’ (ASX:AAR) Mandilla has had a metallurgical test work makeover that has further de-risked the gold project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields region after finding that its mineralisation is amendable to very rapid leaching with recoveries of up to 99.5%.

Results from Hestia, Eos and Iris are consistent with the flagship Theia deposit. The company reckons the 95.7% gold recovery assumption used in the scoping study might be conservative.

Summit Minerals (ASX:SUM) has scored the highest niobium grades yet at its new Equador project in Brazil, including up to 64.6% Nb and high grades of tantalum from rock chip samples.

A revised drilling plan will take into account results from metallurgical test work, to allow a full complement of updated information to specifically target the highest prospective areas of niobium and tantalum.

Brightstar Resources (ASX: BTR) has struck high-grade gold mineralisation while spinning the drillbit into the Lord Byron deposit at its 239,000oz gold Jasper Hills project.

The gold producer has nothing but praise for Lord Byron’s so-far unsheathed endowment with a thick intersection of 26m @ 2.69g/t from 120m, wrapping up the 54-hole, 8000m drill campaign that will add to Jasper Hills’ resource update.

Australian Mines’ (ASX:AUZ) soil sampling program has identified three drill-ready target zones with elevated tin at its Resende project in Brazil’s mining-friendly Minas Gerais state.

Sampling returned maximum values of ~60 times, 70 times and 30 times the average values of tin and pathfinder elements indium and bismuth respectively in the upper continental crust.

Nickel X (ASX:NKL) says the acquisition of the Penny South gold project has been approved by shareholders with completion due to occur shortly.

The project is in the world class gold district and ~550m south of one of Western Australia’s highest grade producing gold mines owned and operated by Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS), and is estimated to contain 440,000t of ore at a grade of 22g/t gold. Shareholders have also approved the change of the company’s name to Strata Minerals, due to take effect shortly along with new ASX code (ASX:SMX). Plus, the second tranche of the recent $2m capital raise in which all directors participated has now been completed.

Raiden Resources (ASX:RDN) has made new technical appointments ahead of commencing drilling on the Andover South lithium project in the Pilbara, including Sean Halpin as chief operating officer, Aaron Hawley as acting project manager for the Andover South lithium campaign and Mike Roche as a geologist for the Andover South drilling program.

“With these new appointments, the company has significantly boosted its technical and operational capacity ahead of a highly active period,” MD Dusko Ljubojevic said.

“Our team has gained critical leadership and operational expertise, essential to unlocking the full potential of our projects, particularly within the Andover Complex.

“This includes valuable experience from the Andover lithium discovery itself, giving us confidence that the upcoming drilling program will be executed to the highest technical and safety standards.”

Comet Ridge (ASX:COI) says its working closely with operator, Santos, to commence upstream project Front End Engineering Design (FEED) as a precursor for a final investment decision for the Mahalo JV project – which the company plans to transition into meaningful gas supply for the east coast gas market.

In addition to the above upstream activities, the Mahalo JV participants have recently received a draft offer from Jemena to perform a FEED scope of work for the Mahalo Gas Hub Pipeline (MGHP) to connect the Mahalo JV Project infrastructure to nearby domestic and export pipelines.

The MGHP FEED will enable the construction and provision of gas transportation services via a DN250 (10 inch diameter) Class 900 pipeline capable of transporting up to 80 TJ/d of gas from the proposed Mahalo JV compression facilities to end user markets.

Alma Metals (ASX:ALM) has received firm commitments to raise $0.75m via a placement at 0.75c per share to extend its drilling campaign at the Briggs porphyry copper deposit in Queensland and to follow up on the recent best intersection of 276m at 0.45% copper from surface.

The placement amount includes director participation of $140,000, which is subject to shareholder approval, and the drill contractor has agreed to take up to $75,000 of their fees related to the additional drilling in Alma shares priced at 0.75c per share, following their initial agreement of up to $240,000 in Alma shares, priced at 1.2c per share.

“New funding will be used to extend the current drill program to improve resource confidence and potentially allow commencement of a scoping study later this year,” MD Frazer Tabeart said.

 

TRADING HALTS

Star Minerals (ASX:SMS) – pending an announcement in relation to an acquisition.

Andean Silver (ASX:ASL) –  pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raising.

Iltani Resources (ASX:ILT) – pending an announcement in relation to a material capital raising.

 

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While  Astral Resources, Antipa Minerals, Summit Minerals, Australian Mines, Nickel X, Raiden Resources, Comet Ridge and Alma Metals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

Today’s Closing Bell is brought to you by Webull Securities. Webull Securities (Australia) Pty. Ltd. is a CHESS-sponsored broker and a registered trading participant on the ASX.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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