Closing Bell: ASX rebounds, fuelled by utilities gains
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.
Trading Halts
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
4 minutes ago
- ABC News
Legal Practice Board of WA faces parliamentary inquiry amid 'detailed list' of complaints
The tables will be turned on WA's legal watchdog as it faces a parliamentary inquiry into longstanding concerns about its operations. The Legal Practice Board of WA (LPBWA) is the independent regulator for the state's legal profession, deciding who is admitted to practice law, issuing annual practising certificates and resolving complaints about lawyers' conduct. But the LPBWA itself has been the subject of complaints for years, according to the profession's peak body. "Concerns about the board's governance and processes have been building for some time," Law Society CEO Kate Wellington told the ABC. "We appreciate the nature of the board's regulatory role. The board's purpose is public protection. "The legal profession, too, serves a public purpose and it is important that its ability to fulfil that purpose is not hindered by barriers to effective practice." Late last month, the Law Society said it presented a report to the board "based on feedback shared with us in a profession-wide survey, which pointed to delays, service challenges and problematic regulatory processes". The chair of state parliament's Public Administration Committee, which will probe the LPBWA, said the survey contributed to the committee's decision to open its inquiry. "People were talking about the timeliness of responses, the manner of interactions, a lot of technical issues around applications," Labor MP Kate Doust said. "It's quite a detailed list. "We were quite surprised at the nature of the responses in the survey and certainly the number of responses to the survey." Ms Doust said given the role the Legal Practice Board played in WA's legal system, the committee felt it necessary to investigate those complaints. "You want to make sure that people have got appropriate access and timely responses to the matters they have to deal with, their engagement with the board," she said. "There just seemed to be a fairly high rate of dissatisfaction with their engagement." The board's annual report for 2023-24 showed it failed to meet many of its time-based key performance indicators — for example, while it aimed to resolve 80 per cent of "consumer matters" within 90 days, it did so in just 42 per cent of cases. It also aimed to resolve 80 per cent of the "highest complexity significant investigations" within a year, but only met that timeframe 40 per cent of the time. The only time-based targets that were on track related to internal reviews of decisions. The committee is now calling for submissions to inform its wide-ranging investigation into "the operation and effectiveness" of the board. "This inquiry will give those impacted an opportunity to voice their concerns without fear," Ms Wellington said. In a statement, the board's executive director welcomed the opportunity to engage with the committee. "These are matters we take seriously. "Over the past 12 months the board has commenced a number of internal reforms aimed at improving service delivery, streamlining regulatory approvals and enhancing stakeholder engagement. "The board remains committed to maintaining the trust of the public, the legal profession and government." In May the LPBWA was hacked, resulting in "limited corporate correspondence" being taken, which it said included "minimal contact information" and "bank account details for the board and a very small number of third parties who have been directly notified". It forced the organisation to take some of its systems online and process lawyers' practising certificates manually.
AU Financial Review
34 minutes ago
- AU Financial Review
Bonds, Sheridan and Berlei back on the block in Hanes strategic review
High-profile Australian clothing and homeware brands including Bonds, Sheridan and Berlei could be sold after the American giant that acquired them almost a decade ago agreed to a $3.3 billion merger. Hanesbrands purchased Pacific Brands in 2016 after several years of pain for the ASX-listed apparel maker, which had written off more than $1.5 billion and sold businesses such as Hard Yakka workwear and Volley shoes.
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Live updates: Australian share market to open flat, Wall Street little changed, US Fed rate-cut expectations trimmed
The Australian share market is set for a soft open as Wall Street ends flat, while a hotter-than-expected US producer prices report dampens expectations of potential interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. A report from the US Labor Department showed producer prices increased the most in three years in July due to a surge in the costs of goods and services, suggesting a broad pick-up in inflation was imminent. We'll bring you the latest on what's happening on the markets throughout the day in our live blog. Disclaimer: this blog is not intended as investment advice.
