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Market Wrap

ASX closes flat; Vault Minerals leads gold rally

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The news: The Australian sharemarket closed slightly higher as gains in the mining and consumer staples sectors offset share price losses taken by the big four lenders and oil companies.

The benchmark ASX 200 rose 0.02% to end at 8663.7 with five of the 11 sectors finishing in the green.

The materials sector (+1.2%) was the best performing as BHP (+0.9%), Fortescue (+1.5%) and Rio Tinto (+0.4%) shares lifted. Gold miners also rallied on a higher spot price for the commodity.

Consumer staples (+1.2%) also finished higher as Coles (+1.7%) and Woolworths (+1.3%) posted gains. Endeavour Group (+3%), the operator of Dan Murphy’s and BWS, also finished higher despite announcing that its executive chair Ari Mervis had resigned with immediate effect due to disagreements with the board.

The industrials sector (-0.6%) was the worst performing as Computershare (-2.7%) and SGH (-1.8%) finished lower.

The energy sector (-0.6%) also posted big losses as Woodside (-1.3%), Santos (-0.3%) and Ampol (-1%) fell amid a dip in global crude benchmarks following a decision from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) to a major increase in oil production.

Commonwealth Bank (-0.1%), NAB (-0.7%), Westpac (-0.8%) and ANZ (-1.6%) weighed on the finance sector index (-0.6%).

Biggest movers:

  • Gold miners – Led gains on the ASX 200 after the spot price soared in a previous session following the release of soft US jobs data and the rollout of President Donald Trump’s global tariff regime. Vault Minerals (+6.8%) shares gained the most on the benchmark index, followed by Bellevue Gold (+6.5%), Northern Star Resources (+5.6%) and Ramelius Resources (+4.4%).
  • Block (-4%) – The fintech company was the biggest loser on the ASX 200 despite there being no company-specific news.
  • Sims (-3.1%) – Finished lower after its fourth consecutive trading session of losses. On Friday, the metal recycling business announced it had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding for scrap iron supply to Alter Steel.

Deals news:

  • Elanor Commercial Property fund (+3%) – Received an off-market takeover offer by the Lederer Group, a large Australian family office. Lederer is offering 70 cents cash for each stapled security.
  • HMC Capital (+1.1%) – The investment fund appointed Campbell Lutyens “to introduce third party capital” into the energy transition platform and confirmed it completed the acquisition of Neoen’s assets in Victoria.
  • IGO (+1.1%) – Signed a binding agreement to sell its Forrestania nickel operation in Western Australia to small cap Medallion Metals.
  • Newmont Corporation (+0.9%) – Received USD100 million ($154.4 million) from China’s Zijin Mining Group following the Parliament of Ghana’s renewal of the Akyem East Mining Lease, a conditional payment that is part of a sale agreement completed earlier this year.
  • New Zealand Energy Companies – New Zealand’s four largest electricity generators — Genesis Energy (+1.4%), Mercury NZ (0%), Meridian Energy (-1.7%) and Contact Energy (-1%) — have agreed to establish a strategic energy reserve at Huntly Power Station. It is expected to come into effect from 1 January.
  • Santos (-0.3%) – Signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with ENGIE to supply natural gas from the Narrabri Gas Project into the domestic east coast gas market. This is subject to final investment decisions on the Narrabri project as well as other negotiations.
  • BlueScope Steel (-1.2%) – Announced it will lead an international consortium of Nippon Steel, JSW Steel and POSCO to participate in the Whyalla Steelworks sale process.
  • WiseTech Global (-1.7%) – Completed its acquisition of New York-listed e2open for USD2.1 billion ($3.25 billion) that was announced in May.

Other news:

  • Beach Energy (+3.5%) – Reported a full-year net loss of $43.8 million, an improvement on last year's loss of $475.3 million, after recording an after-tax impairment charge of $474 million related to a lower commodity price outlook.
  • Argo Investments (-0.1%) – Reported full-year net profit of $259.8 million, up $253 million compared to last year, bolstered by better-than-expected dividends from a number of portfolio companies.
  • a2 Milk (-1.7%) – Former TPG Telecom CFO Grant Dempsey will join the board of a2 Milk on 1 September.

What’s ahead:

  • The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release data on the monthly household spending indicator for June on Tuesday at 11:30am AEST.

By Brandon How