The ASX200 has closed up 0.68% at 8,205 points and within striking distance of a new record.
The big four banks performed strongly and drove the overall market higher. Westpac (ASX:WBC) charged up 2.2%, National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) cranked up 1.9% and Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) joined in, rising 1.5%.
The majority of sectors finished in the green, and IT closed up 1.65%, followed by Financials, up 1.55% and Discretionary, up 0.75%.
Utilities was the worst performing sector, down 0.9%, followed by Real Estate, down around 0.8% and Health Care down 0.15%.
In the Green
Arcadium Lithium (ASX:LTM) closed up more than 45% on Rio Tinto’s takeover approach. Both companies say the approach is non-binding and there is no guarantee any transaction will proceed. Investors pushed Arcadium to its biggest day on the bourse since hitting the boards in January this year.
Arcadium Lithium closed at $6.09.
WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1) closed up 4.35% after posting initial refining testwork results. The post flotation process testwork delivered a clean refined concentrate of 66.9% niobium pentoxide at 99.9% recovery.
WA1 Resources closed at $15.13.
Nimy Resources Ltd (ASX:NIM) closed up more than 10.1% after hitting a high-grade trend of copper, nickel, cobalt and PGE mineralisation. The hit is within a wider zone of sulphides through drilling at its Masson prospect in Western Australia.
Nimy Resources closed at 6.5 cents.
In the Red
West African Resources (ASX:WAF) closed down 19.5% despite confirming the Burkina Faso government was supportive of its gold mining operations. According to Reuters, the country’s government plans to withdraw mining permits from some foreign companies and will seek to produce more of its own gold.
West African Resources closed at $1.34.
Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL) closed down 4% on news of a broker downgrade. The broker note released by Jefferies downgraded the stock to an underperform and cut its price target to $1.10.
Deep Yellow closed at $1.44
Element 25 (ASX:E25) closed down around 4.4% on news of plans to launch a world first fleet of in-pit mining trucks at the company’s Butcherbird Manganese mine in WA.
Element 25 closed at 32.5 cents.