ASX climbs as BHP, Rio rises; CSL shares drop

The Australian sharemarket rose on Tuesday afternoon buoyed by fresh record highs on Wall Street and a rally in mining stocks.

The S&P/ASX 200 Index added 26.8 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 8879.8 at 2pm AEST, with nine out of the 11 sectors in the green as investors position for the first rate cut from the US Federal Reserve this year. The Australian dollar reset a fresh 10-month high at 66.76¢.

The All Ordinaries were up 0.4 per cent to 9153.8 points.

Goldman Sachs is tipping the Fed to cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point this week, followed by October and December and “two more cuts next year”.

“A 50 basis point cut is also possible at an upcoming meeting if the labour market deteriorates more quickly than we have assumed in our forecast”, the bank said. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 closed above 6600 points for the first time and the Nasdaq reset its record high buoyed by strong gains in Alphabet and Tesla.

On the ASX, the materials sector was the best performing, climbing nearly 1 per cent as the big miners tracked a higher iron ore price above $US107 a tonne on the Singapore exchange. Index heavyweight BHP rose 0.9 per cent, Rio Tinto added 1.7 per cent and Fortescue rose 1.2 per cent.

Investors also piled back into the gold sector as bullion traded above $US3682 an ounce ahead of the Fed decision. Bellevue Gold rallied 5.3 per cent and Genesis Minerals added 2.6 per cent.

There was a mixed performance across the major banks, with Commonwealth Bank slipping 0.2 per cent and ANZ falling 0.5 per cent. National Australia Bank rose 0.8 per cent and Westpac rallied 1 per cent.

Stocks in focus

In corporate news, CSL shares slipped 1.5 per cent amid news it will invest up to $760 million in Dutch biotech VarmX.

Super Retail Group slumped nearly 3 per cent following the sacking of group managing director and chief executive Anthony Heraghty due to an undisclosed office romance with the company’s former chief human resources officer.

Chemist Warehouse parent Sigma Healthcare rallied 1 per cent after appointing former Total Tools and JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Murray as chief financial officer.

Coal miner New Hope rallied 6.7 per cent after posting a full-year net profit of $439.4 million and after a fully franked dividend of 15¢ apiece.

Uranium player Paladin Energy’s shares have entered into a trading halt after the company announced a $300 million equity raising.

Elsewhere in uranium, Deep Yellow was among the best performing stocks on the ASX 200, rallying 7.9 per cent.