Evening Wrap: ASX rallies led by BHP, New Hope profits jump ten-fold, US futures steady

The S&P/ASX 200 closed 87 points higher, up 1.29%.

A much needed bounce for a market that's holding onto dear life. A resource led rally helped the local sharemarket close at session highs. Let's get into it.

ASX 200, All Ords and All Tech intraday overview

Markets

• 9 out of 11 sectors higher

• Energy and Materials led the gains

• Utilities, Financials and Discretionary sectors all rose at least 1%

• Healthcare and Real Estate were the only red sectors

• 66% of the top 200 companies advanced

Stocks

• New Hope (ASX: NHC) +8.8% posted a 1,140% jump in net profits to $983m thanks to surging coal prices 

• Tuas (ASX: TUA) +4% reported FY22 revenue growth of 67% to $57.4m and a $15m profit (from -$2.5m a year ago)

• SRG Global (ASX: SRG) +2.9% secured a four-year term contract with Alcoa and a two-and-a-half year contract with Albemarle, valued at a combined ~$80m 

• IDP Education (ASX: IEL) +2.3% entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100% of Intake Education for up to $83m

  • Intake is a leading student placement agency operating across South Africa, Asia and the UK 

• KMD Brands (ASX: KMD) +2.2% reported 6.2% revenue growth in FY22 but profits tanked -40% to $36.8m. Earnings were impacted due to 11,000 lost trading days in the first-half due to lockdowns 

• Bigtincan (ASX: BTH) -3.5% delivered a record FY22 result with revenue up 143% to $108.6m. Still, losses widened 52% to -$21.2m

Quick bites 

• China launches eight infrastructure projects worth a combined US$256bn (Reuters)

• Flooding hits Australia's NSW regions again (Argus Media)

• US Department of Energy is selling an additional 10m barrels of oil (Bloomberg)

• Germany has set aside billions for natural gas purchases (Bloomberg)

Economy

• China’s 1-year and 5-year loan prime rate was unchanged at 3.65%

Highlights from RBA meeting minutes:

• RBA policymakers considered a 0.25% or 0.5% for the next meeting, suggesting they are already thinking about slowing the pace of hiking

• “The Board expects to increase interest rates further over the months ahead, but it is not on a pre-set path given the uncertainties surrounding the outlook for inflation and growth.”

• “The full effects of higher interest were yet to be felt in mortgage payments, and the broader effects on activity and inflation would take some time to be apparent.”

• “All else equal, members saw the case for a slower pace of increase in interest rates as becoming stronger as the level of the cash rate rises.”

Westpac's take on the RBA minutes:

• "It has been Westpac’s view that the greater “evil” of the current economic settings is to lose control of inflation and inflationary expectations."

• "We think that will only be achieved with a significant slowdown in the economy from 3.4% growth in 2022 to 1% growth in 2023."

• "The Board will have to accept a downturn in growth and employment and it is unlikely it will be able to bring inflation back without compromising the “even keel”, which it has favoured in today’s Minutes as on previous occasions."

Commodities 

• Iron ore futures on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange fell -1.5%

Latest News

Scans

Post market charts

S&P/ASX 200: The market bounced after a rather dire session on Monday. Intraday was a little choppy, with a bit of selling around noon but reclaimed session highs towards close. A much needed bounce from rather oversold levels but more is needed.

XJO chart (Source: TradingView, Annotations by Market Index)

S&P/ASX 200 Energy: Bounced off the 50-day. Oil prices have been volatile. Will the XEJ make another lower high?

XEJ chart (Source: TradingView, Annotations by Market Index)

S&P/ASX 200 Materials: Bouncing from no-man's land. Pushing into the 50-day. Will we see some resistance there?

XMJ chart (Source: TradingView, Annotations by Market Index)

Stocks and sectors

Travel stocks bounced: In-line with the 2.3% overnight rally from the US Global Jets ETF. Still, most travel stocks remain range bound at best. Then there's Flight Centre (ASX: FLT).

Webjet chart (Source: TradingView, Annotations by Market Index)

Flight Centre chart (Source: TradingView, Annotations by Market Index)

A2 Milk: First touch of the 20-day since earnings gap up on 29 August.

A2 Milk chart (Source: TradingView, Annotations by Market Index)

BHP: Similar to XMJ, a bounce from no-man's land. Pushing into the 50-day. Closed at session highs. Has a lot of work cut out for it to reclaim those key moving averages. Some stimulus headlines from China is helping.

BHP chart (Source: TradingView)

Ioneer: One of the less volatile lithium charts. Chugging along the 20-day.

Ioneer chart (Source: TradingView)

Allkem: Manages to reverse an intraday dip to close at session highs.

Allkem chart (Source: TradingView, Annotations by Market Index)