Top 10 at 11: ASX continues energetic climb to new highs

Morning, and welcome to Stockhead’s Top 10 (at 11… ish), highlighting the movers and shakers on the ASX in early-doors trading.

With the market opening at 10am sharp eastern time, the data is taken at 10.15am in the east, once trading kicks off in earnest.

In brief, this is what the market has been up to this morning.

Building to new heights

The market has kicked off Friday morning trade with plenty of pep in its step.

The ASX 200 has already blown past yesterday’s intraday record high, rising 0.3% or 26 points in the first half hour of trade to set a new record at 8900.6 points.

It’s been a broad market effort so far with 9 of 11 sectors higher. The Banks (+0.59%) and Resources (+0.53%) indices are also on the up.

The utilities sector is once again making a strong showing, adding 1.16%, but energy is also moving higher (+0.87%) after oil prices rose 2% overnight.

US President Trump threatened “severe consequences” if his upcoming talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin fail to produce results.

Analysts predict that this, plus expectations of an interest rate cut in the US next month, will increase oil demand. Brent lifted to US$66.84 a barrel overnight.

Gold futures also slid 0.7% as higher-than-expected US inflation data lifted the US dollar and bond yields, settling around US$3383.20 an ounce. Spot gold is trading at US$3335.85 an ounce.

SMALL CAP WINNERS

In the news…

Great Western Exploration (ASX:GTE) has defined what it believes is a large volcanic hosted massive sulphide copper-gold system at Yerrida North project.

GTE used a close-spaced ground gravity survey to vector in on the core of the system, which Great Western reckons is similar to the nearby Degrussa copper mine.

Degrussa produced up to 300k tonnes of copper concentrate per year during its operation, which ran from 2012 to 2022.

Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD) has locked in binding commitments to raise a total of $830,388 in a share placement and rights issue at $0.002 per share, a 50% discount to the company’s last trading price.

MRD will put the funds toward a review of new mining opportunities and ongoing work programs on its Mount Ridley rare earths project and Weld Range iron ore project.

SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

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