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The ASX200 spiked straight after the Reserve Bank of Australia announced it’ll hold interest rates at 4.35 per cent – the index closing up more than a third (0.36) of a per cent.
As far as how sectors went – Materials and Energy each added about 2 per cent – while Real Estate also gained strength – up more than a per cent.
Financials, on the other hand, lost nearly half a per cent.
In this bulletin, we’ll look at news from Universal Biosensors, Bellevue Gold, Australian Vanadium, Metals Acquisition and Poseidon Nickel.
In the Green
Global electrochemical cell company Universal Biosensors (ASX:UBI) soared nearly 60 per cent after attaining US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) Waiver approvals for its Xprecia Prime Coagulation Analyser – a portable device to monitor blood clotting.
The company can now market the device to hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices throughout the US.
UBI closed at 25 cents.
Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) had a 7 per cent gain after identifying a gold shoot with grades including half a metre at 374 grams per tonne of gold during an infill drilling program at its 1.4 million ounce Deacon ore body in WA.
It claims there could be 6 similar shoots there. The company has mobilised another underground drill rig to expedite work.
BGL closed at $1.83.
And Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) shot up well over 13 per cent on news it had produced its first batch of high-purity vanadium electrolyte at its newly commissioned manufacturing facility in Western Australia.
The facility is designed to produce high-purity electrolyte of up to 33 MWh (megawatt-hour) per year of Vanadium Flow Battery energy storage.
Samples of vanadium will now be provided to battery manufacturers.
AVL closed at 1.7 cents.
In the Red
There was no rise in interest rates, but there was also no fall. That means there’s no extra money for average punters to spend!
Discretionary stocks struggled and Consumer Staples even more so.
Woolworths (ASX:WOW) dropped nearly 1.3 per cent today to close at $32.07 and Coles (ASX:COL) lost a per cent to $16.50.
Metals Acquisition (ASX:MAC) shed nearly 2 per cent on its latest drilling update from its CSA Copper Mine in New South Wales.
One of the best intercepts include 14 metres at 7.9 per cent copper, but that was from a depth of close to 160 metres.
MAC closed at $20.49.
And Poseidon Nickel (ASX:POS) closed at .7 of a cent – down 12.5 per cent after news CEO Craig Jones is ‘departing to pursue other opportunities’.
It comes just a day after Poseidon sold its nickel plant to Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) in a $15 million deal. The company’s CFO Brendan Shalders will move into the CEO role from the start of next month.
