Big banks leading Aussie shares higher at midday

[Pelican Press 0]

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Big banks leading Aussie shares higher at midday

The local share market has begun the week with modest gains after a strong US jobs report over the weekend allayed fears the world’s biggest economy was headed into recession.

At noon AEDT on Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 25.8 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 8,175.8, while the broader All Ordinaries had climbed 28.8 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 8,444.7.

On Friday night, Australia time, the US Labor Department reported that non-farm payrolls rose by far more than expected in September, leading the S&P500 to jump 0.9 per cent.

“There was absolutely no ambiguity in the way the market traded the US jobs data – it was solid across all metrics, and remaining US recession calls have once again been pushed out,” Pepperstone head of research Chris Weston said.

Five of the ASX’s 11 sectors were higher at midday and five were lower, with energy flat.

Financials was the biggest mover, climbing 1.2 per cent, with gains for all four of the big retail banks.

NAB and Westpac had gained 1.4 per cent, CBA was up 1.3 per cent and ANZ had advanced 0.9 per cent.

In the mining sector, Arcadium Lithium had soared 43.7 per cent to a four-month high of $6.005 after Rio Tinto confirmed it had made a tentative takeover offer for the Philadelphia-based company created in January by the merger of Allkem and Livent.

“The approach is non-binding and there is no certainty that any transaction will be agreed to or will proceed,” Rio Tinto said.

Shareholder Blackwattle Investment Partners had already urged Arcadium’s board to ******* the “opportunistic” approach for undervaluing the company.

Rio shares were down 1.1 per cent while other lithium companies were higher. Pilbara had added 3.0 per cent, Liontown had gained 8.8 per cent and IGO had advanced 3.1 per cent.

The other big iron ore miners were higher, with BHP rising 0.7 per cent and Fortescue adding 2.3 per cent.

Elsewhere in the sector, West ******** Resources has sunk 17.1 per cent to a four-week low of $1.38 after Burkina Faso junta leader Ibrahim Traore said in a radio address over the weekend the government planned to withdraw mining permits from some foreign companies.

“We know how to mine our gold and I don’t understand why we’re going to let multinationals come and mine it,” Traore said, according to Reuters.

West ******** Resources, a Perth-headquartered company that mines exclusively in Burkina Faso, said it wasn’t aware of any plans by the government to withdraw any of its mining permits.

In the smaller end of town, Bowen Coal had sunk 41.7 per cent to 0.7 cents after the Queensland coking coalminer announced a $70 million capital raising at a 25 per cent discount to fund more development at its Burton mine in north Central Queensland.

The *********** dollar had dropped to a nearly three-week low of 68.05 US cents, from 68.42 US cents at Friday’s ASX close.

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