ASX standouts: Thursday’s big movers and gainers

The ASX is up for a sixth consecutive session in a last minute end of year rally. It needs another 1.6% to take out the all-time high it set in August. 

Trading volumes and news flow remains low, given it's both the second last trading session and day of the year. 

Wall Street was mostly positive overnight with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 within an arm's reach of all-time highs. Although the tech-heavy and interest rate sensitive Nasdaq lagged following a jump in bond yields. 

ASX winners 

The banks are doing the heavy lifting on Thursday, with the ASX Financials Index up 0.32%. The big four banks and Macquarie Group (ASX: MQG) are all up less than 1%. 

Iron ore miners are posting some small gains despite iron ore prices retreating 1% overnight to US$118.3/t. On Tuesday, China’s steelmaking hub Tangshan faced a new round of production cuts spanning 27-31 December to improve air quality, according to FastMarkets. 

That said, BHP Group (ASX: BHP) is up 0.8%, trading just below its 200-day moving average. 

Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) is up 0.6% and just below its 100-day moving average. 

While iron ore and lithium producer Mineral Resources (ASX: MIN) is up 1.4%.

ASX losers 

The ASX Information Technology Index next is down 0.8%, weighed down by yet another decline from Afterpay (ASX: APT). Shares in the leading BNPL opened 2.4% lower after Block (formerly Square) fell 1.1% in overnight trade. 

Lithium and renewable-related stocks are trading mostly lower after a strong showing on Wednesday.

Mid-cap lithium names are struggling the most, with Lake Resources (ASX: LTR) giving back -3.5%, Firefinch (ASX: FFX) down 3.1% and Piedmont Lithium (ASX: PLL) opening 3.4% lower.