ASX rallies as materials lead
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The news: The Australian sharemarket rallied after strong gains on Wall Street, following data that pointed to a softening in the US economy.
The numbers: The benchmark ASX 200 increased 1.19% to end at 7,831.8, with nine out of 11 sectors finishing in green.
The best performing sector was materials, up 2.26%, followed by financials (1.24%).
Magellan Financial Group, up 5.97%, was one of the best performers across the ASX 200 after the fund manager posted a bump in performance fees and stable fund flows.
Santos jumped 4.17% after a report by Bloomberg said that Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company were considering separate takeover bids for the company.
Nickel Industries ended 3.13% higher despite the miner announcing that its mining and processing operations had been affected by higher than expected rainfall.
Meanwhile, Regal Partners gained 1.82% after it flagged an anticipated growth in funds under management for the June quarter.
The worst performing sector was utilities, down 1.11%, followed by IT (-0.36%).
West African Resources plunged 13.21% after announcing a $150 million placement to develop its gold project in Burkina Faso. The placement issue price was a 13.8% discount to its last close before the announcement.
Lendlease (-1.05%) and Stockland (-0.47%) both ended lower after the ACCC raised concerns with the former’s proposed sale of 12 residential communities to Stockland and Supalai.
Boss Energy ended 2.39% lower despite announcing that it was ready to start deliveries from its Honeymoon uranium project with initial production running ahead of the ramp up schedule.
The context: Election polls for the UK election have opened and will close at 10pm BST (1pm AEST Friday). The election is widely expected to see the Conservative Party voted out after 14 years in power and Labour’s Keir Starmer becoming the next prime minister.
Friday will see the Australian Bureau of Statistics release the latest monthly household spending figures.
