The ASX has rebounded sharply following yesterday’s gains. The stars of the day were Real Estate, Utilities, Energy and Materials, all closing up by more than 2 per cent.
In other news, Twitter CEO, Elon Musk has finally responded to the poll he made asking if he should step down as head of Twitter. He stated today, “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.”
At the closing bell, the S&P/ASX 200 was 1.29 per cent higher at 7,115.00.
FuturesThe Dow Jones futures are pointing to a fall of 146 points.
The S&P 500 futures are pointing to a rise of 13 points.
The Nasdaq futures are pointing to a rise of 35.75 points.
The SPI futures are pointing to a rise of 94 points when the market next opens.
Best and worst performersThe best-performing sector was Utilities, up 3.80 per cent. The worst-performing sector was Telco Services, finishing flat.
The best-performing large cap was Evolution Mining
(ASX:EVN), closing 8.1 per cent higher at $3.07. It was followed by shares in Origin Energy
(ASX:ORG) and Newcrest Mining
(ASX:NCM).
The worst-performing large cap was TPG Telecom
(ASX:TPG), closing 1.05 per cent lower at $4.72. It was followed by shares in Medibank Private
(ASX:MPL) and James Hardie Industries
(ASX:JHX).
Asian newsJapan's Nikkei has lost 0.66 per cent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng has gained 0.09 per cent.
China's Shanghai Composite has gained 0.01 per cent.
Company newsMagnetite Mines
(ASX:MGT) is pleased to announce the completion of a peer review of the Razorback Iron Ore Project’s process plant, with outcomes confirming the feasibility of the Hatch-engineered flowsheet and plant design. With the overall objective of producing high-grade magnetite concentrate with iron grades above 67.5 per cent Fe, the Razorback process flowsheet has been designed to process iron ores for minimum operating cost. An accompanying metallurgical testwork suite has been undertaken to de-risk the flowsheet at every stage of processing. Shares closed 0.8 per cent higher at $0.64.
NOVONIX (NASDAQ: NVX, ASX:NVX, OTCQX: NVNXF), a leading battery materials and technology company, today announced an update on its plans to scale its U.S. production of high-performance synthetic graphite anode materials following the recent announcement that KORE Power, Inc. closed its initial US$75 million of an anticipated total US$150 million in funding. “I am excited to begin delivery of our high-performance synthetic graphite from our Riverside facility to KORE in 2024, our first significant volume offtake,” said Chris Burns, Co-Founder and CEO of NOVONIX. “We are pleased with the progress at our Riverside facility as we start to bring production online to support mass production qualification with KORE and other customers.” Shares closed 7.4 per cent lower at $1.58.
Matrix Composites & Engineering
(ASX:MCE) announced it has received a purchase order for approximately $44 million from multi-national oilfield services company Saipem to supply SURF products. Matrix Chief Executive Officer Aaron Begley said, “Our ability to methodically capitalise on the resurgence of activity in our traditional offshore buoyancy markets in 2022 has culminated in this very substantial purchase order.” Shares closed 19.6 per cent higher at $0.28.
DroneShield
(ASX:DRO) announced that iit has received an all-time record purchase order for approximately A$11 million for a Government agency customer. DroneShield CEO, Oleg Vornik, commented: “With this transformational next step in DroneShield’s growth, and as the counterdrone industry continues to rapidly grow, we look forward to rapidly fulfilling this contract.” Shares closed 20 per cent higher at $0.21.
MedAdvisor
(ASX:MDR) has announced that it expects the first half of FY23 revenue to be up 50-60 per cent on the same period in FY22. Commenting on the 1H FY23 revenue update, CEO & Managing Director Rick Ratliff, said: “MedAdvisor is seeing an increase in the use of inMotion thanks to the number of community pharmacies enabling digital access to 60 million individuals combined with MedAdvisor’s ability to service this growth at scale through our technology platform. Shares closed 11.1 per cent higher at $0.25.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at US$1,824.10 an ounce.
Iron ore is 1.2 per cent higher at US$110.50 a tonne.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a 1.56 per cent rise.
Light crude is trading $0.07 lower at US$76.02 a barrel.
One Australian dollar is buying 66.66 US cents.
