The ASX bounced back after suffering its worst weekly decline in almost seven months, with battery materials miners leading the charge.
The Australian sharemarket closed in the green after spending all of last week in the red, with battery materials producers leading the charge amid surging demand for electric vehicles.
The S&P/ASX200 firmed 0.39 per cent to 7489.9 while the All Ordinaries Index added the same amount to 7761.1.
CommSec analyst Steve Daghlian said it was a choppy start to the session, coming off a 2.2 per cent slide last week, which was the worst weekly decline in close to seven months.
OMG chief executive Ivan Tchourilov said Pilbara Minerals, Orocobre, IGO and Nickel Mines were strong performers, with lithium and nickel in vogue, and cobalt trailing close behind.
Pilbara rocketed 11.39 per cent to $2.25, Orocobre advanced 5.2 per cent to $9.11, IGO jumped 5.34 per cent to $9.28 and Nickel Mines gained 3.63 per cent to $1.
“IGO is taking serious steps in the fight for battery materials. They already produce nickel and cobalt, and recently teamed up with Tianqi Lithium to produce lithium hydroxide in Australia,” Mr Tchourilov said.
“On top of this they’re in talks to acquire Western Areas, although they’ll have to get through Andrew Forrest before they can close the deal.”
The mining magnate last week took a substantial stake in Western Areas and hit headlines again on Monday for buying an 18.5 per cent stake in salmon farmer Huon Aquaculture Group, which has backed a takeover offer from Brazilian meat processing giant JBS of $3.85 per share.
Huon said the billionaire had indicated he might not support the proposal, revealing his Tattarang Agrifood company had previously submitted a non-binding and conditional indicative offer but didn’t lob a final bid.
Mr Forrest has taken aim at JBS over animal welfare, taking out full-page newspaper advertisements saying “your animals deserve better and your customers expect more”, saying there was “no compromise” at his own Harvey Beef company.
Huon said it was focused on securing proper value for its investors and would “not be distracted by external noise that does not provide Huon shareholders with that opportunity”.
Shares in Huon, which is valued at $423m under the JBS offer, lifted 0.52 per cent to $3.84.
Ampol lobbed a takeover offer for New Zealand fuel retailer Z Energy of $NZ3.78 ($A3.61) per share, valuing the target at $NZ1.96bn ($A1.87bn) and sending its shares soaring 14.53 per cent to $3.31.
Z Energy said Ampol had made three prior bids it believed undervalued the company but the board thought the latest proposal warranted granting Ampol a four week exclusivity period for it to conduct due diligence.
Ampol said acquiring Z Energy was “a logical growth opportunity”, owning and managing more than 300 fuel stations in New Zealand under the Z and Caltex brands.
Shares in Ampol, which also announced a sharp increase in first-half earnings, slid 4.76 per cent to $26.22.
CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman noted petrol prices had been on the longest losing streak since February 2018, declining for seven successive trading sessions to Friday, with the surge in Delta Covid cases clouding the oil demand outlook.
But frustratingly for Sydney’s essential workers, fuel prices rose as high as $1.779 cents a litre in some suburbs on Monday, according to real-time fuel app MotorMouth, Mr Felsman said.
Oil and gas producer Cooper Energy slid 2.44 per cent to 20 cents despite reporting record full-year production, sales volumes and revenue, and saying it expected material growth in 2021-22.
Jewellery retailer Michael Hill lifted 1.82 per cent to 84 cents after booking a near 15-fold surge in full-year statutory net profit to $45.3m, despite Covid-related store closures.
“The company has now delivered eight consecutive quarters of positive same store sales growth together with sustained margin expansion,” a chuffed chief executive Daniel Bracken said.
However, Michael Hill warned the impact of lost sales in the first seven weeks of this financial year due to lockdowns had been significant.
Property giant Charter Hall Group gained 6.49 per cent to $18.37 after booking a lift in full-year statutory net profit to $476.8m, up from $345.9m previously.
The company invests in office, retail, industrial and logistics, and social infrastructure real estate such as childcare centres, and reported various records including $10.1bn worth of asset transactions.
Event Hospitality and Entertainment, which owns the biggest cinema circuits in Australia, New Zealand and Germany under brands including Greater Union, posted a $48m full-year statutory loss, a near 16 per cent improvement on the prior year, saying it had been hit hard by the impacts of the pandemic.
But its hotel chains, including Rydges and QT, managed a quarter-on-quarter trading improvement while its Thredbo Alpine Resort had a record revenue result thanks to unprecedented demand “for the summer experience”.
Restrictions slashed its it ski season capacity by more than half but business model changes mitigated the impact, the company said.
Shares in Event Hospitality and Entertainment leapt 6.17 per cent to $13.25.
Outdoor advertising company oOh!media narrowed its first-half net loss to $9.3m, from $28m for the same period last year, after revenue jumped by 23 per cent, saying it had “leveraged the continuing recovery in out of home audiences”.
“We have seen strong audience growth post lockdowns which has led to a significant turnaround in revenue for the half, particularly in our key formats of road, retail and street furniture in Australia and New Zealand,” chief executive Cathy O’Connor said.
Shares in oOh! fell 4.62 per cent to $1.44, despite third quarter revenue currently pacing 38 per cent higher than the same period in 2020.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission gave an update on its investigation into the November outage of ASX’s equity trading platform, saying the system was not ready to go live “considering ASX’s near zero appetite for service disruption”.
Shares in ASX Ltd rose 3 per cent to $88.50.
ANZ inched one cent higher to $28.32, Commonwealth Bank put on 0.9 per cent to $100.17, National Australia Bank inched two cents lower to $27.39 and Westpac edged two cents higher to $25.78.
Rio Tinto softened 0.5 per cent to $106.69, BHP climbed 0.27 per cent to $44.46 and Fortescue slumped 4.27 per cent to $19.49.
The Aussie dollar was buying 71.56 US cents, 52.4 British pence and 61.07 Euro cents in afternoon trade.
Originally published as Australian sharemarket bounces back after worst weekly decline in almost seven months
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