Closing Bell: ASX rebounds, fuelled by utilities gains

The ASX is within touching distance of another slam dunk, rebounding from yesterday’s losses to set a new intraday high. Pic: Getty Images

ASX rebounds to set new intraday high, up 0.53pc
Origin Energy leads gains alongside utilities sector
Unemployment rate falls, lowering interest rate cut chances

ASX sets new intraday high

The ASX rebounded powerfully from yesterday’s profit taking, adding 0.53% or 46.7 points by the end of the day.

The market briefly touched a new intraday high of 8899 points, but couldn’t hold the gains to mark off a new record close as well. We’re currently sitting 0.28% off that intraday high.

Today’s hero was the utilities sectors, riding high on a surge in Origin Energy (ASX:ORG) shares (+6.3%) alongside some other solid performances among its brethren.

The gas and electricity provider lifted underlying profits by $307m year-on-year and offered up a second 30c dividend to bring the financial year’s full offering to 60c a share.

AGL Energy (ASX:AGL) also climbed 2.5%, while Genesis Energy (ASX:GNE) lifted 2.8% and Energy World Corp (ASX:EWC) 1.7%.

Overall, eight of 11 sectors finished higher and the Banks (+1.3%), Tech (+1.3%) and Gold indices (+0.33%) lent their momentum to boot.

Looking for coverage of today’s earnings reports? Check out our midday Lunch Wrap courtesy of the preeminent Eddy Sunarto for deets on Westpac (ASX:WBC), Suncorp Group (ASX:SUN), Pro Medicus (ASX:PME), Temple & Webster (ASX:TPW) and South32’s (ASX:S32) earnings performances today.

More Australians employed more efficiently

The ABS released its employment stats today, which fell overall in line with expectations at 4.2%, with 25,000 jobs created in the past month.

The numbers tell a story of a more efficiently employed workforce, too – part-time workers fell by 36,000 while full employment lifted by 60,000 positions.

Our underutilisation rate – which combines unemployment and underemployment rates – fell by 0.2% to 10.1%, maintaining an ongoing downward trend.

Women’s participation in the work force hit a record high this month, with the participation rate reaching 63.5%.

“Trend annual employment growth has been faster than population growth for most of the past year, but has slowed in recent months to be in line with annual population growth in July,” ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick said.

The numbers were exactly in line with both the market’s and the RBA’s expectations, lowering the expectations for a September interest rate cut to 35% according to the ABC’s business blog.

That said, expectations for a rate cut before November are still high at 78%.

ASX Leaders

Today’s best performing stocks (including small caps):

Code	Name	Last	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
ATV	Activeport Group Ltd	0.023	142%	1.52E+08	$6,526,282
GGE	Grand Gulf Energy	0.002	100%	804209	$2,820,425
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.004	60%	46808312	$1,946,223
CRB	Carbine Resources	0.006	50%	2879525	$4,000,652
MEL	Metgasco Ltd	0.003	50%	100000	$3,674,173
PRM	Prominence Energy	0.003	50%	15207265	$972,941
TMX	Terrain Minerals	0.003	50%	331104	$5,063,629
OLY	Olympio Metals Ltd	0.13	44%	593543	$9,276,057
BPP	Babylon Pump & Power	0.007	40%	8348639	$19,034,455
MMR	Mec Resources	0.007	40%	9922730	$9,248,829
CR9	Corellares	0.004	33%	750000	$3,021,809
DTI	DTI Group Ltd	0.008	33%	66887	$5,382,617
BPH	BPH Energy Ltd	0.012	33%	21504358	$10,964,095
FUL	Fulcrum Lithium	0.078	26%	460054	$4,681,000
FRB	Firebird Metals	0.175	25%	4568697	$19,930,596
BLU	Blue Energy Limited	0.01	25%	3181706	$14,807,789
DBO	Diabloresources	0.02	25%	1983870	$2,689,854
DTM	Dart Mining NL	0.0025	25%	10091666	$2,396,111
CAN	Cann Group Ltd	0.016	23%	1108697	$8,466,991
IS3	I Synergy Group Ltd	0.011	22%	4113289	$15,356,699
WTM	Waratah Minerals Ltd	0.75	22%	4837566	$143,610,044
DTR	Dateline Resources	0.2	21%	57147520	$527,867,058
BB1	Blinklab Limited	0.53	20%	862076	$38,394,908
SOR	Strategic Elements	0.042	20%	2378280	$16,586,467
FBR	FBR Ltd	0.006	20%	4066783	$28,447,261

In the news…

Activeport (ASX:ATV) has launched Australia’s first “private cloud networking superhighway”, Private-Cloud Connect, swiftly bringing three new customers on board.

The networking infrastructure product offers high speed data communication ports, connecting branch offices to private cloud services hosted in colocation data centres.

With AI and data-heavy cloud computing gaining rapidly in property, ATV reckons there’s a solid market to corner in connecting private business with high-powered data centres.

Health and wellness food company OMG Group’s (ASX:OMG) Blue Dinosaur snack products are set to be stocked in 750 7-Eleven stores across Australia as part of a ranging deal. OMG has been building strong sales momentum in recent months, increasing cash receipts by 42% to more than $1.6m quarter-on-quarter.

ASX Laggards

Today’s worst performing stocks (including small caps):

Code	Name	Last	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
GGE	Grand Gulf Energy	0.001	-50%	31455	$5,640,850
BEL	Bentley Capital Ltd	0.015	-42%	4318593	$1,979,326
DTM	Dart Mining NL	0.002	-33%	21263802	$3,594,167
PRM	Prominence Energy	0.002	-33%	255120	$1,459,411
SKK	Stakk Limited	0.005	-29%	8192	$14,525,558
AQX	Alice Queen Ltd	0.003	-25%	151531	$5,538,785
AYT	Austin Metals Ltd	0.003	-25%	4674800	$6,336,765
MRQ	Mrg Metals Limited	0.003	-25%	691143	$10,906,075
AQC	Auspaccoal Ltd	0.008	-20%	7558757	$7,004,676
ARV	Artemis Resources	0.004	-20%	350432	$14,328,361
OSX	Osteopore Limited	0.008	-20%	8341781	$2,372,600
TMX	Terrain Minerals	0.002	-20%	1446699	$6,329,536
VRC	Volt Resources Ltd	0.004	-20%	27625	$23,424,247
OZM	Ozaurum Resources	0.062	-17%	2193670	$17,182,640
SRK	Strike Resources	0.029	-17%	150000	$9,931,250
EVE	EVE Health Group Ltd	0.03	-17%	115684	$8,863,557
IXC	Invex Ther	0.075	-17%	1332	$6,763,846
1AD	Adalta Limited	0.0025	-17%	2078341	$3,463,949
FBR	FBR Ltd	0.005	-17%	2494829	$34,136,713
GLL	Galilee Energy Ltd	0.01	-17%	300000	$8,486,315
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.0025	-17%	323599	$2,335,467
SPQ	Superior Resources	0.005	-17%	7554456	$14,225,896
TMK	TMK Energy Limited	0.0025	-17%	12258062	$30,667,149
BVS	Bravura Solution Ltd	2.02	-17%	13434796	$1,085,016,685
FNX	Finexia Financialgrp	0.17	-15%	145035	$12,460,793

In Case You Missed It

Legacy Minerals Holdings (ASX:LGM) has reported promising early diamond drilling results from the Thomson project in western New South Wales.

DY6 Metals’ (ASX:DY6) preliminary metallurgical testing of ore from the Tundulu rare earths and phosphate project in Malawi has identified the opportunity to produce a phosphoric acid grade flotation concentrate co-product.

Sipa Resources (ASX:SRI) has wrapped up RC drilling and is preparing to get an aircore program underway at the Tunkillia North and Nuckulla Hill gold projects.

Argenica Therapeutics (ASX:AGN) now has a clear path forward to clear the clinical hold currently in place on its investigational new drug application that will enable clinical trials for its lead drug ARG-007.