PEAK ASSET: ARVO WRAP 31 JANUARY: ASX soars to new heights after cooling inflation sparks rally | Newmont to slide down ASX 200 as investors ditch secondary listings | QMines makes significant progress on Mt Chalmers |

Happy hump day.

Can you believe it is the end of January already?

Time certainly is flying!

Across Markets…

The Australian sharemarket soared to a new all-time high on Wednesday, after inflation cooled at a faster-than-expected clip in the December quarter, driving traders back to risk-on equity assets.

The S&P/ASX 200 closed up 80.5 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 7680.7 after starting the session as much as 0.3 per cent down. That’s 51.8 points higher than the previous closing record of 7628.9 points reached in August 2021.

The index also set a new intraday all-time high of 7682.3.

Shares rallied after the consumer price index data showed growth had slowed to 0.6 per cent in the three months through December, from a 1.2 per cent in the September quarter.

Market consensus was for inflation to slow to 0.8 per cent. Over 12 months, CPI cooled to 4.1 per cent from 5.4 per cent.

“While today’s release won’t move the dial in the lead-up to next week’s RBA board meeting, expected to see the cash rate kept hold at 4.35 per cent, it does reinforce expectations of RBA Rate cuts in the second half of 2024,” said IG analyst Tony Sycamore.

The subsequent broad market rally was led by interest-rate sensitive utilities and real estate stocks, which closed 1.7 and 2 per cent higher, respectively.

Banks were also boosted: Commonwealth Bank rose 1.3 per cent to $117.53, Westpac gained 1.5 per cent to $24.18 and ANZ inched 1.5 per cent higher to $27.20. 

Weebit Nano fell 9.8 per cent to $3.47. In its latest quarterly report, the semiconductor tech developer reported weaker-than-expected revenue and said it expected no royalty payments 2024 as clients using its technology continued to ramp up to production.

Sayona Mining dropped 4.8 per cent to 3.9¢ after selling 50 per cent less lithium concentrate in the most recent quarter, amid a slump in the price of the battery metal.

Champion Iron’s December quarter results were boosted by record production and high iron ore prices. Shares jumped 4.8 per cent to $8.53. 

Credit Corp lost 2.6 per cent to $17.21. The Australian debt collecting giant said it was on track to come in at the bottom end of its profit guidance, after posting a net loss in its most recent half-year.

Origin Energy chief executive Frank Calabria pointed to fresh investments in large-scale batteries and UK affiliate Octopus Energy as validating the electricity and gas supplier’s opportunity in renewables. Shares are 2.7 per cent higher at $8.52. 

IGO lost 2.2 per cent to $7.56 after placing its Cosmos nickel project on care and maintenance, following a review of the mine’s prospects amid a deteriorating nickel price.

Source: AFR