The ASX is down just under a quarter of a percent in lunchtime trade. Falls in miners have offset a three-day winning streak across most of the market.
Despite pain for the miners, Commonwealth Bank has hit yet another all-time-high, despite many analysts describing the stock as overvalued.
The bank, which is Australia’s largest listed company, has seen a sustained run year-to-date, despite a majority of investment analysts recommending investors downgrade their holdings, or outright sell the stock, over the last 18 months.
Financials are the leading sector up 0.54%, closely followed by Telecommunication up 0.49% and Healthcare up 0.42%. Materials have suffered big losses down 1.27% as miners retreat from yesterday’s highs.
Company News
Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) is down 2% after reporting a 2% drop in Pilbara iron ore production in Q2 of 2024.
Shipment volumes fell to 157.4 million tonnes.
The company says a train collision in May affected production and shipping, resulting in stockpiles building up at its mines – as well as overhead weak Chinese demand.
Rio Tinto is trading at $117.47
Victory Metals (ASX:VTM) is up 4.3% after revealing the discovery of Australia’s largest heavy rare earth indicated resource.
Located at its North Stanmore project near Cue, Western Australia, the updated mineral resource estimate boasts a total of 235 mega tonnes of ore of which 149 Mega tonnes of ore is indicated.
Reflecting 63% of the total resource, Victory states this officially inks Australia’s largest indicated category heavy rare earth resource.
Victory Metals is trading at 36.5 cents.
Encounter Resources Ltd (ASX:ENR) has reported the emergence of a large trend of niobium mineralisation at its Green target in Western Australia.
Drilling work pulled up grades of up to 4 percent niobium pentoxide.
Despite the promising results for a metal causing much market excitement, the market sold off Encounter shares in morning trade.
Encounter Resources is trading at 73 cents.