ASX Market Close: Local bourse back to 7,800pts ahead of Easter long weekend

Good Afternoon and welcome to HotCopper’s Market Close for Thursday 17 April, I’m Jonathon Davidson.

The ASX went its own way despite Wall Street’s overnight finish to close out this shortened trading week, climbing back above the 7,800 points level. 

Looking at sectors, Energy led the gainers up +3.8% while health care was at the bottom of the ladder in the red down around point ten percent. All other sectors were green.

Looking at companies in the green,

Santos jumped +3.1% after posting stable quarterly earnings when compared to the prior corresponding period, and management shrugged off the massive hit its share price took when Trump tariffs kicked in. Santos closed at $5.66.

Elsewhere, WA1 Resources ended up 4.2% in the green after its latest batch of niobium drilling assay results showed a further series of mineralised diamond tipped drill cores, further cementing the legitimacy of its value prop, straddling one of the largest known niobium deposits outside of Brazil. Shares closed at $11.30.

Finally, Gorilla Gold Mines continued its fairly meteoric and perhaps overlooked rise over the last twelve months, ending up just over 22% at 52cps after extending the known mineralised area onsite its flagship project by 125 metres. Year on year, Gorilla Gold Mines, formerly Labyrinth Resources, is up over 1,130%. Of course, that’s off a low base. 

And as for companies in the red, 

Black Cat Syndicate ended down, perhaps as profit takers moved in after the company announced its first gold pour. While early intraday shares jumped, stocks ended down -2.4% at $1.00/sh.

Elsewhere, Brazilian Rare Earths fell as markets now decide where to allocate capital when it comes to rare earths miners in the face of China’s further ban on exports of the critical minerals this week. Shares ended down -5.8% at $2.25Sh.

Finally, biotech favourite Orthocell fell -4.8% as heat generated by its quarterly report earlier this week dissipated. Shares ended down at $1.30/sh.

That’s HotCopper’s Market Close for this 4 day week, I’m Jonathon Davidson, have a great Easter break and we’ll see you on Tuesday.