Strong leads from the United States helped bolster the benchmark S&P-ASX 200 index, which ended the day 1% higher to 3646 points.
There wasn’t all that much good news for the mining sector in metals prices, which generally retreated, but that didn’t stop the resources rally from continuing.
As usual, the big boys lead the way. BHP Billiton rose 52c to $33.78 after announcing another bond sale, adding another few billion euros to its already buffed up balance sheet.
However, at the same time the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union claims BHP is letting go a further 400 coal contractors from its Bowen Basin coal mines. The union’s claims have yet to be verified.
Rio Tinto continued to bask in the warm glow of yesterday’s small win in the battle to have its Chinese-led rescue deal approved in Australia, despite news the miner will be leaving its HIsmelt operation in Western Australia on care and maintenance until April 2010. Its shares rose 77c to $54.70.
Meanwhile, Rio’s chief financial offer Guy Elliot told a conference in Singapore that the company was quite happy to be holding off on settlement of the iron ore price in the current market.
He also warned that Rio might have to consider an even bigger asset fire sale if the “absolutely favourable” Chinalco deal falls through, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
Other gainers included gold plays Newcrest, up 55c to $32.66, while Lihir Gold also rose 3c to $3.22.
Fortescue Metals Group lifted 20c to $2.47, an 8.8% rise, while uranium play Paladin Energy was also up 15c to $3.58.
The day was less kind to OZ Minerals, which fell back 1.5c to 55.5c as rumours of money woes continue to nip its heels.
There is a lot of speculation going around about ex-Oxiana (back before the company became OZ and got into hot water) boss Owen Hegarty, who is also chasing cash to put together a resource acquisition fund, with potential targets rumoured to include OZ projects such as Sepon in Laos as well as Martabe in Indonesia.
Hegarty told Bloomberg his new company, Tigers Realm, may even list on the Australian bourse in a year or so.
But back to the listed plays, with Iluka sliding 5.4% or 23c to $4.02 after announcing it would bring forward the idling of one of its synthetic rutile kilns in Western Australia as the company seeks to match reduced demand.
At the smaller end, junior Meteoric Resources was one of the biggest percentage gainers, rising 2.8c or 46% to 9c, on the announcement it had located a large gold anomaly in Western Australia.
Copper-gold play PanAust was one of the most traded stocks on the Final Call watchlist, with 29 million shares changing hands in 1069 trades, lifting the miner’s share price by 1.5c to 29.5c.
Finally, minnow Austral Africa Resources suffered at the hands of three trades, with its share price halving by 0.1c to 0.1c.
