A good late afternoon and thanks for joining us. I’m Sage and you’re watching Kalkine TV live from
Sydney. This is the last show of the day - The Last Trade. There’s no better way to wind down the
day than with the latest market close commentary. In today’s show we’ll look at the overall ASX200
performance of the day and also explore gainers and losers. This would be followed by shares
that grabbled limelight today such as Propell, Metcash, Pilbara Minerals, Sezzle, Afterpay,
EML Payments, ERA, and many more. Then I’ll share trending updates from the Asian and global markets
and finally in the last segment, we have a special report on cryptocurrencies. So, let’s get started!
The Australian stock market closed higher for the second straight session on Friday amid broad-based
buying support. The benchmark index, the ASX 200, crossed above its 125-day moving average,
amid strong buying in blue-chip mining, energy and tech stocks. The market sentiment was also boosted
by firm global cues as well as strong commodity prices. The Aussie benchmark index, the ASX 200,
closed 0.87% higher. Earlier today, the index opened higher and rose as much as 0.9%, following
firm cues from Wall Street as easing concerns about US debt default lifted market sentiment.
The Aussie market ended the highly volatile week with a 1.87% gain,
supported by sustained rally in energy, financial, utilities and materials stocks.
On the sectoral front, all the 11 indices closed in positive terrain on Friday, while mining and
tech were among the strongest sectors boosting the market. The material sector closed with 1.8%
gain, while information technology rose 1.1%. Among others, telecom, energy, utilities,
consumer discretionary, finance, health care and consumer staples settled with modest gain.
Let’s look at the top gainers and losers of the day.
Aussie gold miner Chalice Mining topped the ASX’s gainers chart by rising 7.2%. It was followed by
financial services firm Magellan Financial, investment and superannuation platform HUB24,
royalty investment firm Deterra Royalties and iron ore miner Rio Tinto. Meanwhile,
fintech player EML Payments emerged as the worst performer with a 13.8% loss. Some of
the other top laggards were drug maker Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals, coal miner Whitehaven Coal,
Domino's Pizza Enterprises and gaming and entertainment group Star Entertainment.
Let us now shift our focus to the stocks that fetched
investors’ attention today.
First on the list is buy now, pay later firm EML Payments. The shares of the company tumbled
as much as 14% following Irish regulation updates. It was also the worst performer
on the ASX pack. EML shares were hammered after the Central Bank of Ireland imposed restrictions
on its Irish subsidiary, PFS Card Services. The CBI has flagged material impacts to its European
business and directed PCSIL to provide it with submissions regarding the potential directions.
The CBI has asked PCSIL to provide it with submissions regarding the potential directions,
which PCSIL intends to do by 28 October 2021.
Shares of intelligent finance solutions provider Propell zoomed as much as 73%
to AU$0.17 after it inked deal with US-based financial technology firm Square . Recently,
Square signed an all-scrip deal to acquire Australia’s largest BNPL player Afterpay.
As per the deal, Propell will integrate its digital platform into Square’s e-commerce
digital payments platform. The technical integration will help the company to leverage
Square’s functionality for the benefit of Propell’s customers. Propell will receive a
percentage of each payment that its customers put through the Square payment services.
Shares of Australian conglomerate company Metcash fell as much as 1.4% after its chief
executive announced to step down. The company said in an exchange update this morning that
its chief executive Jeff Adams will retire early next year. Adams will be replaced by Doug Jones,
currently CEO and senior vice president of South African-based Massmart Wholesale. Doug,
who is a qualified Chartered Accountant, will join Metcash on 1 February 2022.
Shares of lithium producer Pilbara Minerals gained as much as 3.75% during the day’s trade.
The stock rose after the company announced the commencement of commissioning activities at the
Ngungaju Plant. The plant is part of its wholly-owned Pilgangoora Project
located in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The Company stated that this is
the first step of staged recommissioning for the Ngungaju operation. The fines spodumene
processing circuit is expected to commence production within the March Quarter of 2022.
Shares of Energy Resources of Australia tumbled nearly 11% during the day after the company issued
update about Ranger Rehabilitation Project, located in Australia’s Northern Territory. The
uranium oxide producer informed its shareholder this morning that its Ranger Project faces
the risk of cost and schedule overruns. The company said it is not in a position to provide
actual estimates, but it is evident that the cost and schedule overruns will be material.
The company is one of the nation’s largest uranium oxide producers
and operated the Ranger mine, Australia’s longest continually operating uranium mine.
And now, lets take a small break but stay tuned
with me as I’ll be back with more trending market updates
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Hello and welcome back. Sage here with the market close commentary.
Let us look at some more stocks that grabbed investors’ attention today.
Shares of buy now, pay later firm Openpay continued rally for
the second day and gained as much as 7% today. The stock saw surge in buying after it secured
AU$372 million receivables warehouse facility from Goldman Sachs and Atalaya Asset Management.
The funding triples the company’s existing credit facilities and includes just over 1
million warrants for fully paid ordinary shares in the company to be given to Goldman Sachs.
The receivables warehouse facility will help the small cap fintech company
to fuel its expansion into the US market. Openpay looks to facilitate transactions
for merchants and consumers in the US and lays the groundwork to support growth in the region.
US-based BNPL player Sezzle also extended rally for the second day on report of its
partnership with US retailer Target. The share price of the fintech company rose as much as 7%
in intraday trade. On Thursday, American retail giant Target announced the official
launch of its buy now pay later offering with Sezzle ahead of the Christmas holiday season.
The company has also teamed up with US-based financial technology
company Affirm Holdings Inc. to offer payment solution to its customers.
Now that we know what’s the stance back home,
let us move onto our next segment and understand the Asian and global market performance.
Shares in the Asia-Pacific region were trading mostly higher on Friday, tracking
overnight gains in Wall Street after US politicians approached near a temporary
deal to avert a federal debt default. The market sentiment was also lifted by ease in crude prices,
which hit multi-year highs earlier this week, leading to global equities sell off.
Japan’s Nikkei was the best performer in the region by rising more than 2%.
The index rose for the second day in the last ten consecutive sessions, amid receding fears over the
US government debt crisis. The market rebounded after sharp fall in the last two weeks amid
fading expectations of economic reforms from the newly Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Chinese stocks also rallied on the first day of trade after a week-long holiday.
The Shenzen Composite Index rose over 1% and the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.8%
as investors cheered services activity data. Activity in China’s services sector returned
to growth in September, reveals a data from a private survey. The Caixin/Markit services
Purchasing Managers’ Index rebounds to 53.4 from 46.7 in August. A figure above 50-point mark
indicates expansion and below this reading indicates contraction. In a similar trend,
Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite surged 0.9% and Thailand’s SET Composite gained 0.4%.
The Straits Times Index in Singapore also traded higher by 0.1%. India’s BSE Sensex also traded
higher by 0.6% in opening deals. Buking the trend, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell
0.3%, South Korea’s KOSPI slipped 0.2% and Taiwan’s Weighted Index dropped 0.5%.
Meanwhile, Wall Street ended higher in overnight trade as investors cheered developments on debt
ceiling limit extension. The US Senate took a step towards closer towards passing a US$480
billion increase in Treasury Department borrowing authority. The deal would extend
the debt ceiling through to early December. The Dow Jones Industrial Average settled with 1.15%
gain, while the S&P 500 surged 1%. The NASDAQ Composite ended 1.3% higher
on rally in tech heavyweights such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google's parent Alphabet.
We are now in this last segment of this show. Let’s have a quick
look at the buzzing crypto market performance!
The major cryptocurrencies were trading mixed during the Asian trading hours on Friday
as investors took some breather after recent surge. The global cryptocurrency market
capitalisation was quoting around US$2.28 trillion, down 0.5% in the past 24 hours.
After disappointing performance in September, Bitcoin, touched US$55,000 mark briefly on
Wednesday amid reports that the US Securities and Exchange Commission might approve bitcoin
exchange-traded product in the next few weeks. Investors’ sentiment was boosted
by slew of positive developments as well as supportive statements from regulators.
Investors cheered US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s comment that
the US does not intend to ban cryptocurrencies. Concerns over regulatory crackdown have kept
a lid on cryptocurrency prices in recent months. The price of Bitcoin, the world's
largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, was currently trading 2.3% lower at around
US$53,900. The most popular digital coin has rallied 24% in the past seven days. Ether, the
world’s second largest crypto, was quoting 0.8% higher. It has surged over 19% in the last one
week. Meanwhile, Cardano, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, was up
3.5%, while Dogecoin prices dropped marginally by 0.3%. Among others, Uniswap, XRP, Binance Coin,
Stellar, Polkadot, Chainlink and Polygon also received mixed response from investors.
That’s a wrap folks. Hope you found the market closing commentary informative.
We will be back on Monday LIVE from Sydney at 9.30 in the morning
with our first report on pre-market scenario. Take care and stay safe.