It was a strong start in trading this morning, with the ASX making up all of yesterday’s losses. The S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.3% to a 2-day high of 7,285.1 after hitting a 2-day high of 7,281.
The big four banks rose as much as 1.8% after a two-day fall, while CSL and BHP, were both up more than 1%.
Woolworths and Transurban were up about 2.2%.
Rio rose 2.5% and FMG gained 2.4% as iron ore futures rose 7.1% to $US123.60.
At the time of writing, just after midday, the S&P/ASX200 had risen 96.70 points or 1.34% to 7,293.40.
The top-performing stocks in this index were Orica Ltd (ASX:ORI) up 14.78% and Beach Energy Ltd up 6.57%.
The index has lost 1.04% for the last five days, but sits 4.45% below its 52-week high.
Final budget outcome released
The Federal Government today released the final budget outcome for the 2020-2021 financial year.
It showed Australia's budget deficit at the time of the Delta outbreak was nearly $80 billion less than forecast in the pandemic’s first year.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg believes the economy will quickly recover.
Frydenberg said rising levels of employment had already reduced the budget deficit.
"With more people in work and less people on welfare, the improvement in the labour market has been the key driver of the improved budget position," he said.
The effect of Delta will have an impact. Current lockdowns are likely to wipe out the gains after the government committed to billions of dollars in financial support.
"By the time the COVID disaster payment has ended and the business support payments have ended, we will be up for a bill of more than $20 billion," he said.
An estimated $2 billion decline in economic activity each week because of the lockdowns in Victoria and NSW will also have an impact.
However, Frydenberg remains optimistic.
“We recognise that since this final budget outcome, the economy has been hit by the Delta variant.
"But with the vaccination rates fast approaching the 70 and 80% targets, restrictions will be eased, and what these numbers confirm is that when restrictions are eased, the Australian economy bounces back."
On the small cap front
Qx Resources Ltd is up 53.85%, Mitre Mining Corporation Ltd is up 30% and Gentrack Group Ltd is up 29.12% at the time of writing.
Gascoyne Resources Ltd (ASX:GCY) is up 19.35% after receiving an unsolicited, conditional off-market takeover offer from $708 million Western Australian gold producer Westgold Resources Ltd.
Blue Star Helium is up 10.34% having completed the public review process for its Form 2A Oil and Gas Development Plan (OGDP) application for the Enterprise 16#1 exploration well in Las Animas County, Colorado.
Predictive Discovery Ltd (ASX:PDI) is up 14.29%, trading at a five-year high after delivering its maiden mineral resource estimate for the Bankan Gold Project in Guinea’s Siguiri Basin.
Amplia Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:ATX) is up 7.5% following the publication by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research of a key paper describing the fundamental biology underpinning the company’s planned Phase 2 clinical trial in pancreatic cancer patients.
MGC Pharmaceuticals Ltd (LSE:MXC, OTC:MGCLF, FRA:H5O, ASX:MXC) is up 5.17% with its commercial partnership with AMC Holdings Inc already starting to bear fruit.
Other small caps of note
- AIS +3.13%
- ARN +4.55%
- AQI +2.27%
- AON +2.13%
- AKM +3.7%
- APC +4.3%
- BDC +5.81%
- CDX +3.28%
- CPN +4.48%
- CCZ +2.7%
- CXO +2.56%
- DNK +2.5%
- EMN +2%
- FYI +4.29%
- FEL +2.22%
- GBR +10%
- GGG +4.76%
- INF +5.17%
- KKO +2.13%
- KNM +14.29%
- LKE +3.45%
- LRS +4.76%
- LEG +6.56%
- LIN +22.22%
- MMJ +2.56%
- MAG +4.44%
- M2R +2.5%
- NTU +2.33%
- OKU +9.52%
- PNX +7.69%
- PAB +4.55%
- PXS +3.85%
- PLL +5.07%
- PXX +5.56%
- QML +11.43%
- SRJ +4.69%
- SUD +2.13%
- STM +4.55%
- TMR +17.14%
- TSC +10%
- WKT +2.5%