ASX closes flat as Liontown Resources leads lithium rout, DroneShield soars
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The news: The Australian sharemarket finished flat as lithium stocks plummeted amid reports that major Chinese lithium producer CATL had moved closer to a mining permit and reopening its Jianxiawo mine.
The benchmark ASX 200 edged 0.04% lower to end at 8,845.7 despite eight out of the 11 sectors finishing in green.
The worst performing sectoral index was consumer discretionaries (-0.8%) as Wesfarmers (-1.3%), Aristocrat (-0.6%) and The Lottery Corporation (-0.7%) posted losses.
Eagers Automotive entered a trading halt before announcing plans to expand into Canada through a $1 billion strategic investment in CanadaOne Auto, one of Canada's largest dealership groups. This will be partly funded through an equity investment by Mitsubishi in Eagers’ pre-owned car business easyauto123.
The industrials sector (+1%) was the best performing as DroneShield (+23.2%) shares rocketed amid European Union considerations for a ‘drone wall’ that would detect, track and intercept potential threats.
Biggest movers:
- Lithium Miners – Chinese authorities approved reserve reports from major lithium producers CATL and Gotion High-Tech. Liontown Resources (-10.7%) was the biggest loser on the ASX 200 with Pilbara Minerals (-6.4%), Mineral Resources (-3.8%) and IGO (-4.1%) also fell.
- Southern Cross Media Group (-6.2%) – The Southern Cross Austereo board has called on Allan Gray managing director Simon Mawhinney to withdraw comments saying its directors should be “lined up and shot” for agreeing to merge with Seven West Media without a shareholder vote. The merger was announced on Tuesday.
- BHP (-2.5%) – China’s state-run iron ore buyer, China Mineral Resources Group (CMRG), reportedly ordered steelmakers and traders to suspend purchases of all new BHP cargoes.
- Bravura Solutions (+18.2%) – Lifted its expected FY25 cash EBITDA from at least $50 million to between $55 million and $65 million.
- Westgold Resources (+10.7%) – Unveiled a new three-year outlook to investors that sets out an increase in annual gold production from 326,000 ounces in FY25 to more than 470,000 ounces by FY28.
- Austal (+5.8%) – Reached an agreement with the US Navy over its Towing, Salvage and Rescue Ship program, currently under construction in Alabama.Dyno Nobel (+4.8%) – Announced that the sale of fertiliser arm Incitec Pivot's distribution business to Ridley Corporation was finalised on Tuesday and that it anticipated a “strong underlying EBIT result in FY25”.
- Meridian Energy (+4.3%), Contact Energy (+0.8%) and Mercury Energy (+2.4%) – New Zealand energy retailers have welcomed new government reforms in response to an independent review of the local electricity market.
Other news:
- Platinum Capital (-3.2%) – Wilson Asset Management has lost its bid to run the board of listed investment company Platinum Capital after shareholders voted in favour of L1 Capital. However, only one-third of shareholders voted and of those who voted more than half were L1's votes.
- Generation Development Group (+1.2%) – Appointed Colonial First State executive Shenaz Waples as an independent non-executive director, with immediate effect.
- Tuas (+1.1%) – Completed an expanded $75 million share purchase plan that will help fund its acquisition of telco M1 from asset manager Keppel Corporation.
- Rio Tinto (+0.5%) – Warned that the Gladstone Power Station, Queensland’s largest coal-fired power station, could close in March 2029, six years earlier than scheduled.
What’s ahead:
- Automatic Data Processing Inc. will release September data for US non-farm employment change at 10:15pm AEST.
- The US Institutes of Supply Management will release US purchasing managers index data for September at midnight AEST.
