The Australian All Ordinaries continued to trade in a tight range that seemed to lack a clear narrative today with a 0.8% weaker close at 5,087 points.
Most of the index’s major economic sectors were in the red, with only mining stocks eking out a marginally value-adding performance.
MARKET ACTION
Standouts in the junior mining space included Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT) which traded up to 7% higher today before closing at A$0.029 per share.
This finish marks a 142% improvement since the stock hit a low of $0.012 earlier this year.
The improvement has been largely associated with traction at the Broken Hill polymetallic project in New South Wales, which today proved its variability with more positive exploration results for platinum group metals (PGM).
The latest drilling results from the project’s Red Hill prospect include 0.5 metres at 10 g/t platinum, 11.1 g/t palladium, 0.6 g/t gold, 1% copper, 0.5% nickel and 41.5 g/t silver.
This intercept was recorded within a broader 6.3-metre intersection at 1.6 g/t platinum, 2.5 g/t palladium, 0.3 g/t gold, 0.9% copper, 0.5% nickel and 13.8 g/t silver.
These results come through as new drilling gets underway at Broken Hill’s Platinum Springs prospect, where a strong conductor at least 100 metres long and considered coincident with a unit of massive sulphide containing high-grade nickel-copper-PGMs.
BLUE CHIPS
Major miners
BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) up 1.7% to $17.45
Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) down 1.4% to $1.79
Newcrest (ASX:NCM) down 0.4% to $12.09
Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) up 2.4% to $43.07
Energy or Oil and Gas
Oil Search (ASX:OSH) down 1.7% to $6.24
Santos (ASX:STO) up 0.8% to $3.53
Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL) down 0.7% to $26.84
Big 4 banks
ANZ Bank (ASX:ANZ) down 0.9% to $26.19
Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) down 1.9% to $78.74
National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) down 1.8% to $28.43
Westpac (ASX:WBC) down 2.0% to $31.41
Other banks, financials and industrials
AMP (ASX:AMP) down 1.9% to $5.65
Bank of Queensland (ASX:BOQ) up 0.1% to $13.29
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (ASX:BEN) down 0.8% to $11.02
Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG) down 0.1% to $80.73
Suncorp (ASX:SUN) down 1.7% to $13.08
Telstra (ASX:TLS) down 1.1% to $5.25
Retailers
JB Hi-FI (ASX:JBH) up 1.0% to $18.25
Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) down 0.7% to $37.72
Woolworths (ASX:WOW) down 1.0% to $23.37
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