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Good afternoon, and welcome to Wednesday’s Market Close. Not long ’til the Christmas holidays now, though JD has snuck in some leave a week early, so I’ll be taking you through Closes as well as my Opens until January.
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Honestly, not the most interesting trading day I could’ve jumped in the saddle, with the bourse retreating -0.1%; all but the same as it was at open.
Some sectors did take a bit more of a dive, including Staples, Health Care, and Energy, the latter of which was the biggest loser Wednesday. Only Real Estate and Materials headed the other way, with Materials booming.
Maybe more interesting is that oil’s had the bottom fall out: It’s down as much as -2.7% to four-year lows as Ukraine peace deals begin to hit the rumour mill.
No surprise then that, looking at some of the biggest losers, we see oil stocks.
There, Woodside (ASX:WDS) dropped loosely alongside the barrel price, while Ampol (ASX:ALD) sank back towards $31 a share this arvo.
In the same bucket, HotCopper forums darling DroneShield (ASX:DRO) gave back more than 10% as traders banked W51 profits. The popular dronemaker popped something like +20% this week, so it’s no real shock.
Heading the other way, Metal Powder Works (ASX:MPW) rose more than +15% on a U.S.-facing powder partnership with shipmaker Austal. That major deal will see MPW co-develop bespoke powders for Austal’s many U.S. additive manufacturing requirements, which include bundles for the U.S. Navy.
And Liontown (ASX:LTR) and IGO Limited (ASX:IGO) rode another mid-week lithium spike to jump around +12% each. PLS Group (ASX:PLS) followed, +5%.
That’s HotCopper’s Market Close, I’m Isaac McIntyre – see you for open tomorrow.
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