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ASX falls 0.67% at close: Best performing sector is Utilities

PUBLISHED

2023-11-16

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The Australian sharemarket declined despite a strong labor force report indicating the creation of 55,000 new jobs in October, with a previous upward revision of 8,000 jobs in September. However, the jobless rate increased slightly from 3.6% to 3.7%. Meanwhile, on Wall Street, the S&P 500 surpassed 4,500 as investors analysed economic reports to gauge the Federal Reserve's future actions, with mixed data indicating resilience in US retail sales but an unexpected decline in prices paid to US producers.

At the closing bell, the S&P/ASX 200 was 0.67 per cent lower at 7,058.40.

Futures

The Dow Jones futures are pointing to a fall of 32 points.

The S&P 500 futures are pointing to a fall of 6.25 points.

The Nasdaq futures are pointing to a fall of 37.50 points.

The SPI futures are down 46 points.

Best and worst performers

The best-performing sector was Utilities, up 0.59 per cent. The worst-performing sector was Energy, down 1.19 per cent.

The best-performing large cap was Aristocrat Leisure (ASX:ALL), closing 2.36 per cent higher at $40.41. It was followed by shares in Origin Energy (ASX:ORG) and ResMed (ASX:RMD).

The worst-performing large cap was Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN), closing 4.76 per cent lower at $3.60. It was followed by shares in IGO (ASX:IGO) and Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL).

Asian markets

Japan's Nikkei has lost 0.36 per cent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng has lost 1.43 per cent.

China's Shanghai Composite has lost 0.59 per cent.

Company news

Galan Lithium (ASX:GLN) has signed a binding term sheet with a Glencore subsidiary for potential lithium chloride concentrate offtake and financing of $70-$100 million, endorsing their low-risk development strategy to become Argentina's next lithium producer. Discussions for the larger Phase 2 HMW development are open and well advanced. Shares closed 7.91 per cent higher 75 cents.

Vulcan Energy Resources (ASX:VUL, FSE:VUL) announces the results of its Bridging Engineering Study for Phase One of Vulcan’s Zero Carbon Lithium™ Project. The Company has now reduced CAPEX, reduced risk, and is execution ready. Shares closed 5.04 per cent higher at $2.71.

ABx (ASX:ABX) is in a trading halt regarding a material increase in the Company’s REE Resource. The Company anticipates that the trading halt will be lifted on or before 20 November 2023. Shares last traded at 7 cents.

Bryah Resources (ASX:BYH) announced that their manganese drilling results at West Brumby and Redrum has continued to impress. Commenting on the news, Bryah CEO Ashley Jones said, “These excellent drill results follow our other news flow, being the updated manganese resource and the granting of the mining leases. All the manganese JORC resources are now on granted mining leases.” Shares closed 5.26 per cent higher at 2 cents.

Commodities and the dollar

Gold is trading at US$1,965.90 an ounce.

Iron ore is 1.4 per cent higher at US$132.00 a tonne.

Iron ore futures are pointing to a 2.3 per cent fall.

Light crude is trading $0.66 lower at US$76.00 a barrel.

One Australian dollar is buying 64.73 US cents.

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