Good Afternoon and welcome to HotCopper’s Market Close for Wednesday 24th of September, I’m Jon Davidson. It was a bad start to the day as far as getting back towards 9,000pts goes, and then it got worse. We learned today that Australian headline inflation has climbed back to 3% MoM, on the back of electricity prices – or, at least, less government rebates for household power.
Outside of that, housing remained the biggest factor, showing that Australia’s property and rent valuations continue to act as both a blessing and a curse. Especially a curse if you haven’t got anywhere to live, but, nobody likes to talk about that. US futures flattish green in the last hour of trade, how Thursday goes is anybody’s guess.
Looking at sectors, Utilities and energy in the green heading into the final half hour, every other sector in the red with financials down over 2%. CBA’s market cap dipped below $275B on Wednesday for those playing at home.
But what about companies in the green?
Race Oncology popped once again on Wednesday bringing monthly gains to around 180% as the company appears to be the beneficiary of milestones in its cancer drug portfolio, and, volatility-hungry swing traders. Just remember what goes up comes down.
Anson Resources, meanwhile, green on a mini-lithium thematic revival for that stock after it inked a deal to supply LG Energy Solutions with 4000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate, starting in 2028.
Finally, Droneshield continued to run hard on Wednesday for a third green day in a row or thereabouts, showing that the defence thematic still mightn’t be about fundamentals yet.
So what about the reds?
QEM Limited, exploring for gas in Queensland, fell more than -20% in the final hour one day after being reinstated to quotation and delivering a shareholder presentation to boot, albeit on fairly low volumes. The company may want to find some gold.
Elsewhere, toll road operator Atlas Arteria fell over -5% in the final hour on no news but presumably rattled by a broadly risk-off day for the bourse, and headline inflation of 3% likely didn’t help either.
Finally, CBA down in line with financials today over -1.5% which is never a good thing for the XJO, I’ve been wondering if FDI outflows are to do with recent moves on the ASX broadly and while it’s hard to figure out exactly what’s going on, local ABS data may have helped lead some pessimists to sell decisions. Time will tell.
That’s Market Close, I’m Jon Davidson, have a great night and we’ll see you tomorrow.