The ASX All Ordinaries continued to trade in a tight range and close marginally lower at 5,374 points as wait-and-see trading ahead of a decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting kept overseas cues subdued.
Local resource stocks stalled again as the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 2% to US$43.20 a barrel amid otherwise choppy commodity pricing.
MARKET ACTION
A number of ASX plays, however, bucked the trend, with St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) notably adding 8.25% to the value of its stock to A$0.105.
This marks an 81% improvement for St George shares since late August.
The latest bounce came after new drilling at the Windsor prospect in Western Australia hit additional nickel sulphides, including an interval of high-MgO ultramafic 215 metres thick from 58 metres.
The drilling confirms that the mineralised ultramafic extends both north and south of the prospect’s discovery hole, which intersected 30 metres at 0.31% nickel from 108 metres, including 8 metres at 0.44% nickel from 130 metres and 2 metres at 0.62% nickel from 132 metres.
The large, high-MgO komatiite ultramafic unit at Windsor is open laterally and at depth. The unit is interpreted to extend over 2 kilometres with only 200 metres tested by drilling so far.
The geology encountered so far at Windsor is considered a textbook setting for a massive nickel sulphide deposit and suggests St George’s systematic approach to exploration at Windsor may result in an important discovery.
BLUE CHIPS
Major miners
BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) down 2.4% to $23.75
Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) down 3.4% to $2.25
Newcrest (ASX:NCM) up 0.9% to $13.77
Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) down 1.4% to $52.08
Energy or Oil and Gas
Oil Search (ASX:OSH) flat at $7.58
Santos (ASX:STO) down 3.9% to $6.09
Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) down 2.1% to $29.65
Big 4 banks
ANZ Bank (ASX:ANZ) down 0.6% to $28.75
Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) down 0.1% to $77.64
National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) down 1.9% to $31.79
Westpac (ASX:WBC) up 0.5% to $31.93
Other banks, financials and industrials
AMP (ASX:AMP) up 0.3% to $5.83
Bank of Queensland (ASX:BOQ) down 1.8% to $13.51
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (ASX:BEN) down 1.5% to $10.69
Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG) up 0.3% to $83.60
Suncorp (ASX:SUN) down 0.6% to $13.16
Telstra (ASX:TLS) up 1.1% to $5.58
Retailers
JB Hi-FI (ASX:JBH) down 0.8% to $18.50
Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) up 0.1% to $41.99
Woolworths (ASX:WOW) down 1.8% to $27.37
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