ASX climbs as China consumption plan boosts miners, oil stocks
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The news: The Australian sharemarket ended 0.83% higher, tracking strong gains on Wall Street on Friday. Mining and energy stocks led the rally after China, the world's largest iron ore and crude oil importer, outlined fresh plans to boost consumption.
Shares in gold miner Spartan Resources and EFTPOS machine provider Smartpay both soared after the pair received takeover proposals from larger rivals.
Elsewhere, there were executive moves across the major lenders, as Westpac poached ANZ's finance chief and Commonwealth Bank appointed a new board member.
The ASX 200 closed at 7,854.1, with eight out of 11 sectors finishing in green.
ASX 200 gains:
- Mineral Resources (11.57%) — UBS upgraded its rating on the mining group from 'sell' to 'buy', driven by a reassessment of funding and operational scenarios, and after recent stock weakness.
- Materials (1.97%) — Ended as the best performing sector, as the announcement of a "special action plan" by the Chinese government helped power gains by iron ore miners Fortescue (4.18%), BHP (2.41%) and Rio Tinto (1.79%).
Executive moves:
- Commonwealth Bank (1.62%) — Appointed Barclays chief operating officer and former ANZ and HSBC executive Alistair Currie to its board.
- Westpac (0.95%) — Poached NAB's (-0.18%) chief financial officer Nathan Goonan, who will transfer to the big four rival later this year. Rachel Slade, the head of NAB's business division, is also leaving.
Deals:
- Spartan Resources (9.06%) — Entered into a merger agreement with larger gold mining rival Ramelius Resources (-0.91%).
- Smartpay (47.17%) — Confirmed it has received two separate takeover offers, including one from rival payment operator Tyro Payments (2.06%) valuing the target at around $217.7 million.
- Woodside Energy (1.92%) — Signed a 15-year sale and purchase agreement with state-owned conglomerate China Resources for the supply of liquefied natural gas to China.
Other news:
- Liontown Resources (6.2%) — Analysts reiterated existing ratings on the lithium miner after its half-year result met market forecasts.
- Ramsay Health Care (3.62%) — Upgraded by Macquarie to 'outperform', driven by benefits from a potential sale of its Europe subsidiary Ramsay Sante and issues at Brookfield-owned rival Healthscope.
- Macquarie said there's a risk of a bear market in Australian equities as trade wars and spending cuts driven by the Trump administration trigger "material slowing" in US real consumer spending. Its key portfolio switches were Commonwealth Bank to ANZ (1.41%), and Charter Hall Group (0.06%) to GPT Group (-0.69%).
The Australian dollar is buying 63.24 US cents.
