• ASX 200 adds about 60 points after intraday record
  • Nine of 11 sectors higher, IT weighed by US megatech losses
  • Pearl Gull Iron pops on REE in Chile

 

Local markets surged on Friday following positivity overnight on Wall Street after softening June CPI data.

Before lunch the ASX200 hit a new record peak before easing off a little in the arvo.

By 4pm on Friday the benchmark was 64 points or 0.82% higher at  7,954.40.

Via Google

The benchmark clocked its new record high on Friday before lunch as overnight CPI data showed US inflation was weaker than expected in June, suggesting the US Federal Reserve will soon cut rates.

The upshot in Sydney was all sectors but for IT traded most of the session in the green.

The signs of a US rate cut also lifted the AUD vs the greenback which dropped on the easier-than-expected US CPI read and the firming bets of a Fed rate cut by September.

At home it was again the plucky Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) which has defied critics to clock a new record high as one of many local beneficiaries when the local currency finds support.

CBA has added more than 1%, while in a massive blow to the mining industry BHP (ASX:BHP) suspended its WA nickel business. (Read > here for more on that.)

BHP stock is about 1% lower, allowing CBA to snatch BHP’s throne as the largest ($220bn) market cap business in Australia.

The AUD on Friday has held around $0.67.67, near its best this year.

Above, via Google

Our currency (as per Google) looks pretty good since the Reserve Bank of Australia came in way, way late on the rate-cutting cycle, especially since our inflation looks a lot stickier right now, too.

Local markets still reckon there’s a halfway decent (20%) chance the RBA could hike again, yet they’ve all but priced out a chance of a rate cut this year.

Rate sensitive stocks outside the IT sector made the early running. Property and the Real Estate investment trusts (REITs), were early advancers.

By mid arvo Charter Hall (ASX:CHC) was ahead by almost 5.7%. Domain Holdings Australia (ASX:DHG) added 6.6%

Other uptown winners were Healthcare’s ResMed (ASX:RMD), while the All Ords Gold (XGD) Index added 3.3% with top goldies including Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) and Newmont Corporation (ASX:NEM) rallying alongside both almost 3% stronger.

Likewise, local IT stocks followed the Nasdaq lower after the US megatech names – esp. the Magnificent Seven – all took an overnight hit as US traders rotated out of the big earners, back into short-term US Treasuries.

Our major IT stocks like WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC) (down 3.5% at lunchtime), Computershare (ASX:CPU) (down 3%) and the software accounting firm Xero (ASX:XRO) (down 1%) the major drags.

Elsewhere on Friday, it’s ‘au revoir’ to the Maggie Beer Holdings (ASX:MBH) CEO Kinda Grange who’s quit the kitchen,“to progress her career externally”.

Maggie B says Kinda has agreed to hang around to “assist in transitioning” to the new boss. MBH Chair Sue Thomas says the Board has started a transition process to a new CEO and will update the market.

Finally, we love a good Tungsten story here at Stockhead.

This one features the Toronto-based, triple-listed Almonty Industries (ASX:AII), which is going the Full Wolfram* in South Korea.

AII says its Korean subsidiary – the Almonty Korea Tungsten Corporation – just signed an MOU with Yeongwol County for a Downstream Tungsten Oxide Plant at Sangdong, not far from the Sangdong Tungsten Mine. AII proposes to invest about US$150 million all up.

*Wolfram is, OFC, the cooler name for tungsten.

ASX 200 sectors on Friday

Nine of the 11 ASX sectors were in the green at 3.35pm AEST on Friday. The A-REIT sector the best – gaining +2.1% and some 3.4% over the past five days.

ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO) index has climbed about 1.4% while the ASX Emerging Companies (XEC) index rose about 1.7%.

The XSO and XEC are up 2.7% and 2.4% for the week.

Over the last five days, the ASX200 (XJO) benchmark has gained about 1.7%.

 

asx week ahead

Via Market Index

Not the ASX

Briefly, some decent news out of China, where the trade surplus surged to US$99.05 bn in June, well up on the $69.8 bn of June a year earlier, and well beyond market expectations of $85bn.

It was the largest trade surplus since July 2022, as exports jumped and imports fell.

Overnight on Wall Street, US equities were mixed, with significant falls in the tech megacaps dragging the nasdaq and S&P500 lower. The tech heavy gave away 2%.

US Futures were mixed at 4pm in Sydney.

Via Fox Business

 

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best-performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Wordpress Table Plugin

A late mover on Friday is Pearl Gull, which has found a circutious route to securing some Ionic Absorption Clays (IAC) and Rare earths (REEs) farm-in agreement – potentially tapping into some tasty REEs out of the emerging IAC REE province on the coastal belt of Chile.

Pearl Gull Iron (ASX:PLG) says it’s struck a deal to acquire a company called Huemul and it says Huemul has just struck a deal (and is negotiating a further deal) to earn up to an 80% interest in a company called NeoRe SpA.

This NeoRe SpA holds tenements and tenement applications in Chile, “highly prospective” for IACs and REEs – known as the La Marigen.

PLG says Project La Marigen has 5 tenement and tenement application covering a combined area of ~22,800ha along the prospective coastal belt.

Up about 23% is the Aussie biotech Immutep (ASX:IMM), which has dropped some positive results from its Efti drug combination study with Merck & Co’s anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA, as a first-line treatment for head and neck cancers.  IMM says its Efti combination got the highest recorded positive response for a treatment approach not containing chemotherapy.

IMM says that based on the “encouraging results and high unmet medical need,”  it will discuss the next step forward with regulators.

A surprise winner among the Aussie mid caps is fashion web retailer Cettire (ASX:CTT).

CTT  has shaken off some of the recent short-selling interest it’s been attracting, up a chunky 25% after earlier this week welcoming investment banker Jon Gidney to the Board.

The stock is still down about 40% year-to-date.

Investsmart (ASX:INV) is having a great Friday, the wealth platform dropping some encouraging numbers in a business update despite tricky conditions.

The company delivered an operating profit for the fourth quarter after rationalising it’s cost base. Shares have kicked about 25% higher.

SKS Technologies (ASX:SKS)  has lifted forward guidance for FY25, expecting total annual revenue at circa $200+ million.

CEO Matthew Jinks says the boost is based on “continually accelerating level of work on hand and the recently announced $90+ million project for an international hyperscale data centre project in Melbourne.”

 

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the least performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

TRADING HALTS

Althea Group (ASX:AGH) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raise.

Argent Biopharma (ASX:RGT) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raising.

Norwest Minerals (ASX:NWM) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raise.

Investigator Resources (ASX:IVR) – pending exploration drilling results under the Stuart Shelf Joint Venture.

Freehill Mining (ASX:FHS) – pending an announcement to ASX in connection with capital raising activities.

Augustus Minerals (ASX:AUG) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raise.

 

ICYMI – PM EDITION

Althea Group (ASX:AGH) has launched its new medicinal cannabis dried flower range, Atmos by Althea, in partnership with Canadian licensed producer Rocket Factory, in Australia and the UK.

Galan Lithium (ASX:GLN) continues to progress its Hombre Muerto West (HMW) lithium-brine project in Argentina towards Phase 1 production of 5,400tpa LCE with overall project completion now close to 40%.

 

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Althea Group and Galan Lithium, are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

 

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