Australia’s sharemarket scampered above 9000 points for the first time in six weeks on the back of strong opening momentum for the industrials sector.
But the early force for the top 200 Australian companies petered out amid steady trading on the Labour Day holiday in all states bar Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.
Opening at 9016.2 and rising as high as 9026, the benchmark ASX 200 retreated below 9000 at 11am and fell 0.06 per cent to close lower than Friday at 8981.4 points.
Australia’s dollar rose 0.01 per cent on Monday to buy 66.03 US cents.
On a steady day overall, seven of the 11 sectors ended in the red, with energy, utilities, industrials and materials recording gains, the latter now up 3.31 per cent over the past five days.
Lynas Rare Earths was among the top performers on the ASX 200, jumping 7.2 per cent to close at $19.36. The company is a leading producer of rare earths based outside China.
There was also success for Brisbane Broncos off the field, after the side beat the Melbourne Storm to win the NRL Grand Final in Sydney.
The side had 12 points after round 13, were outside the top eight, and shares in the side traded for 95c.
After sealing the Premiership, shares soared as high as $2 on Monday and closed at $1.68, 27 per cent higher than previous close and 77 per cent higher than the nadir of the season.
Australia’s big four banks had a mixed day, with CBA losing 0.25 per cent to $169.96 and ANZ dipping 0.53 per cent to $34.02, while NAB gained 0.16 per cent to $44.67 and Westpac added 0.15 per cent to $39.37.
The tech sector was hit on Monday, following a retreat in the tech heavy Nasdaq in the US on Friday, WiseTech and Xero closing 2.2 per cent and two per cent down respectively.
Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone, told NewsWire: “It’s been a lacklustre trading day. We opened strongly and then after the first half an hour we started selling off and coming under a bit of pressure.
“And that’s going the opposite direction of S&P futures and asset futures, Japan is obviously flying today and it’s been a bit of a nothing burger session because volumes are very light.
“Sydney is away, so it’s really a day that we can write off from an equity perspective, and as liquidity and participation comes back again tomorrow, then perhaps we’ll see a more realistic situation of the flows.
“Materials have done all right, tech has been under pressure but it’s not indicative of what we’re seeing in the Nasdaq.
“Where we are seeing buying is in gold, it’s absolutely going ballistic at the moment, it’s ripping, silver’s ripping and platinum is going quite well.”
The spot price for a troy ounce of gold is $5900, up 40.71 per cent in 2025, silver is up 56 per cent this year to $73.06 per troy ounce and platinum has risen nearly 66 per cent to $2467 per troy ounce.
Originally published as Steady day for ASX trading, precious metals continue strong performance
