The Australian All Ordinaries gained another 2% to 5,293 points today in a strong session across the index’s major sectors.
The consumer staples sector was a standout, up 2.7% with a number of strong performances from major retailers. Miners were also in good form with the materials group adding 2.2% in value on the day – which brings us to the market action.
MARKET ACTION
Shares in high-purity alumina (HPA) hopeful Altech Chemicals (ASX:ATC) jumped as much as 10% today before closing 90% stronger than five months ago at A$0.105.
This sustained upward trend for the stock has coincided with steady development traction for the company’s HPA project, a proposed high-purity alumina operation including kaolin mining assets in Western Australia and a process plant in Malaysia.
The latest boost in Altech investment came with news that a major German bank had submitted a Letter of Intent (LOI) expressing its interest to arrange senior debt financing for the project.
The bank is considered an export and project finance specialist with experience in the debt financing of worldwide mining and chemical projects whose interest reflects positively on the attractiveness of HPA among informed institutional investors.
Also a recent mining rights deal with Dana Shipping and Trading regarding the kaolin operations in WA is now expected to generate up to A$3 million in cash plus royalties for Altech.
The kaolin will be processed in Malaysia to produce HPA, a high-value, high-margin and highly demanded product used in the manufacture of LED lights as well as alumina semiconductor wafers and the scratch-resistant artificial sapphire glass in various smartphones.
BLUE CHIPS
Major miners
BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) up 2.9% to $20.39
Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) up 0.5% to $2.16
Newcrest (ASX:NCM) up 5.1% to $11.66
Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) up 4.0% to $48.67
Energy or Oil and Gas
Oil Search (ASX:OSH) up 0.2% to $8.14
Santos (ASX:STO) down 2.0% to $4.32
Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) up 3.2% to $30.45
Big 4 banks
ANZ Bank (ASX:ANZ) up 2.9% to $27.53
Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) up 1.6% to $79.07
National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) up 3.1% to $29.68
Westpac (ASX:WBC) up 2.5% to $31.53
Other banks, financials and industrials
AMP (ASX:AMP) up 1.7% to $5.84
Bank of Queensland (ASX:BOQ) up 2.1% to $14.32
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (ASX:BEN) up 2.8% to $11.15
Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG) up 1.2% to $82.39
Suncorp (ASX:SUN) up 1.5% to $13.37
Telstra (ASX:TLS) up 1.4% to $5.41
Retailers
JB Hi-FI (ASX:JBH) up 3.7% to $18.52
Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) up 3.1% to $38.63
Woolworths (ASX:WOW) up 2.1% to $23.61
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