The chance of an interest rate rise next week has diminished with the Consumer Price Index coming in at 4.9 per cent in the year to October.
This is lower than the 5.6 per cent reading in September and well below the 5.2 per cent that had widely been expected. It’s worth noting that the biggest rises spanned essentials including housing, power, gas food, non-alcohol drinks and transport.
This follows yesterday’s Retail Trade numbers which were also down last month.
The ASX200 immediately spiked 22 points on the CPI figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with tech stocks jumping even higher. IT stocks are up nearly 1.7 per cent (1.68) per cent so far, and healthcare and consumer discretionary sectors are also up about 1.5 per cent.
Graphite Project developer EcoGraf (ASX:EGR) is up nearly three per cent after securing a senior debt facility of up to A$160 million for its Epanko graphite project in Tanzania.
It obtained import credit cover from the Federal Republic of Germany in order to attain the credit facility from the KfW IPEX-Bank.
EGR has been trading at 17.5 cents.
The Calmer Co (ASX:CCO) has supplied its kava extract ‘Kavaton’ to US supplements brand, Metagenics, which has launched of its latest nutraceutical sleep aid product, MetaSleep.
Metagenics has the exclusive rights to Kavaton for the practitioner channel in the US.
CCO has been trading at 0.6 of a cent.
Euro Manganese (ASX: EMN) has soared about 55 per cent, after signing an agreement with Orion Resource Partners Group, for A$150 million in non-dilutive financing, for the development of the Chvaletice Manganese Project in the Czech Republic.
The Funding Package has been structured to meet project finance bankability requirements.
EMN has been trading at 15.5 cents.
Australian lithium developer, Wildcat Resources (ASX:WC8) is down seven per cent after adding another 160m to the strike length at the Leia Pegmatite at its Tabba Tabba lithium project near Port Hedland.
That’s extended strike to more than 2km. The assay results from Leia include 73 metres at 1.1 per cent Lithium Oxide from 266 metres depth.
WC8 has been trading at 78 cents.