ASX rises; BHP rallies; Core Lithium surges 19pc

Endeavour chairman Peter Hearl has accused the hotels and liquor retailing group’s largest shareholder, billionaire businessman Bruce Mathieson, of unbalanced and inaccurate commentary on the company.

In a letter to Mr Mathieson, Mr Hearl said his commentary on Endeavour’s financial performance “only serves to misinform shareholders and [has] a negative impact on the business to the detriment of all shareholders”.

Mr Hearl was responding to claims from Mr Mathieson, and others associated with him, that the company was destroying shareholder wealth by mismanaging its flagship Dan Murphy’s chain of liquor stores. Mr Mathieson made the comments, and accused Endeavour’s board of running an “insiders club”, after it failed to support former Woolworths executive Bill Wavish for election at the coming annual meeting.

Endeavour has said Mr Wavish will “not be eligible” for election if he does not obtain the necessary regulatory approvals needed to sit on the board of a company which operates liquor stores and poker machines by the meeting.

Read more here.

Liontown Resources says it has managed to keep a lid on cost blowouts associated with building its flagship Kathleen Valley lithium project but needs to lock in more than $450 million in additional finance within the next three months to keep going.

The Tony Ottaviano-led Liontown said capital costs associated with Kathleen Valley had increased to $951 million, up 6 per cent on the $895 million estimate from January.

Mine operating costs per tonne have also risen but by less than most analysts were predicting, and Kathleen Valley remains on schedule, in a rebuff to Gina Rinehart’s claims about risks hanging over the project.

However, Liontown has shelved plans to generate early cash flow through the sale of unprocessed lithium-bearing ore because of soft prices.

The company delivered its update on Friday as $6.6 billion takeover suitor Albemarle remains close to completing due diligence.

Read more here.

Mining stocks continued to push the Australian sharemarket higher in late afternoon trading.

The stock market had opened in the green, tracking the rebound in US tech stocks overnight and as bond yields and crude oil eased.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5 per cent, or 35.7 points to 7060.5 and the Australian dollar rebounded more than 1 per cent to retake US64¢ as the Bloomberg dollar spot index slid 0.5 per cent.

The materials sector was the best performing, jumping 1.4 per cent. BHP Group was up 1.5 per cent, Fortescue Metals 0.8 per cent and Rio Tinto 1.4 per cent.

The big miners tracked a higher iron ore price with Singapore futures up 1.9 per cent to $US120.30 a tonne on the October contract.

US tech mega-caps, including Nvidia and Meta drove Wall Street higher as the sell-off in US Treasuries cooled overnight, sending the yield on 10-year Treasuries down three basis points to 4.57 per cent.

Stocks on the move

Liontown Resources shed 1.5 per cent after the mining company lifted the estimate on its Kathleen Valley lithium project capital cost to $951 million. The latest estimate is a 6 per cent increase from the $895 million estimate announced in January.

Core Lithium surged 22.1 per cent and was the best-performing stock on the gauge after it reported its maiden full-year profit. The miner recorded its revenue at $50.6 million, underpinned by the sale of its first lithium products in the second half of financial year 2023. Net profit was recorded at $10.8 million.

Bank of Queensland edged up 0.4 per cent even as it revealed it was axing up to 250 jobs. The cutbacks will incur $25 million in redundancy costs and are part of another $79 million in profit hits to Brisbane-based BoQ for the final six months of this financial year.

AMP, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank, Origin Energy, Perpetual and Ramsay Health Care all pay dividends.

Bank of Queensland is axing up to 250 jobs, marking the latest cuts to employee numbers in the banking sector.

The BoQ cuts will incur $25 million in redundancy costs and are part of another $79 million in hits to the Brisbane-based bank’s profit for the final six months of this financial year. That number includes absorbing additional integration costs following its controversial acquisition of ME Bank.

BoQ, which has a loan book of more than $80 billion, has been battling a stream of setbacks including the shock axing of former chief executive George Frazis last November then having two regulators impose enforceable undertakings on the bank in May.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs also turned pessimistic on BoQ’s outlook this week, slapping a sell recommendation amid concerns about weak loan volumes and cost pressures.

Read more here.

There’s a wave of lithium money heading for Canada, and Robert Martin is riding it from Alan Bond’s old offices in downtown Perth.

The lithium entrepreneur looks out on the offices of iron ore giants Rio Tinto and BHP from high up in what was once known as Bond Tower in St Georges Terrace, but his focus is on faraway Ontario and Quebec.

The 50th floor is now home to Martin and a stable of junior Canadian-focused lithium companies he has listed on the ASX and presides over as chairman. The latest, Pioneer Lithium, started trading on Thursday after a $5 million float at 20¢ a share. It closed the day at 36¢, up 80 per cent.

Pioneer has ground in Ontario and Quebec, the two provinces that border James Bay in what is the new frontier for lithium explorers.

The 50th floor is also home to Sixty Two Capital, the broker that was a first mover in Canada and connects Martin to opportunities around James Bay and in other jurisdictions through a close but arm’s length relationship.

Read more here. 

Shares in Australia’s newest lithium miner, Core Lithium, have surged 25 per cent after it posted a net profit from its first shipments of the ore known as “white gold”.

Core Lithium, which owns the Finniss lithium mine near Darwin, became Australia’s latest lithium producer in May.

Share’s in the company rose 25 per cent to 43¢ on Friday. But the stock has not rebounded to highs of around $1.60 reached in November last year.

The mining minnow, which is the fifth most shorted stock on the ASX, rocked investor confidence in July when it said its plan to develop multiple small, adjacent mines would take longer to deliver than expected.

Core told investors then that lithium production in the year to June 2025 would be lower because of capacity constraints in its processing plant. It also flagged a slower-than-expected development of its second mine, known as BP33.

The company reported on Friday that early works and the updated feasibility study at Finniss’ potential cornerstone asset, BP33, were progressing well and the project was on track for final investment decision in the March quarter.

Core reported a net profit of $10 million – its first full-year profit as a lithium producer – in the 12 months to June 30. The project generated revenue of $50.6 million. Core reported a net loss of $7.5 million in the prior year.

Core said it produced a total of 18,274 tonnes of lithium-rich spodumene concentrate through Darwin port for an average of $US4163 a tonne. It also produced 14,775 tonnes of direct shipped ore, which is a poorer-quality lithium product often sold by fledgling miners to generate cash, for an average of $US951 a tonne.

Core maintained its first production guidance of 90,000 to 100,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate sales for the 2024 financial year.

Chief executive Gareth Manderson said that in the second half of the year, Core achieved first revenue, completed construction at its Finniss project and began production and sales of spodumene concentrate.

“Delivering a maiden profit in the first year is a significant achievement and a testament to the strategy to move quickly to production in a strong pricing environment,” he said.

A strong rally in mining stocks pushed the Australian sharemarket higher at midday on Friday.

The stock market opened earlier in the green, tracking the rebound in US tech stocks overnight and as bond yields and crude oil eased.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3 per cent, or 21.2 points to 7046 and the Australian dollar rebounded more than 1 per cent to retake US64¢ as the Bloomberg dollar spot index slid 0.5 per cent.

The materials sector was the best performing, rallying 1.5 per cent. BHP Group jumped 1.5 per cent, Fortescue Metals rose 1.2 per cent and Rio Tinto added 1 per cent.

The major miners tracked a higher iron ore price with Singapore futures up 1.5 per cent to $US117.2 a tonne on the November contract.

US tech mega caps, including Nvidia and Meta drove Wall Street higher as the sell-off in US Treasuries cooled overnight, sending the yield on 10-year Treasuries down three basis points to 4.57 per cent.

Stocks on the move

Liontown Resources shares dropped 1.2 per cent after the mining company lifted the estimate on its Kathleen Valley lithium project capital cost to $951 million. The latest estimate is a 6 per cent increase from the $895 million estimate announced in January.

Core Lithium shares surged 25.7 per cent and was the best performing stock on the gauge after it reported its maiden full-year results. The miner recorded its revenue at $50.6 million, which was underpinned by the sale of first lithium products in H2 financial year 23. Net profit was recorded at $10.8 million.

Bank of Queensland edged up 0.2 per cent even as it revealed that it was axing up to 250 jobs. The cutbacks will incur $25 million in redundancy costs and are part of another $79 million in profit hits to Brisbane-based BoQ for the final six months of this financial year.

AMP, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank, Origin Energy, Perpetual and Ramsay Health Care all pay dividends.

It’s only natural that the seemingly relentless surge in the US 10-year Treasury yield – the benchmark rate from which financial assets across markets are priced – has sent financial markets scurrying back to the history books. And it’s no surprise markets would become fixated on the fact that the 10-year yield, which surged to 4.658 per cent on Thursday night, has not been this high since October 2007.

The GFC, which got under way just months later, is seared on the brains of investors around the world, and every echo from that time is deemed newsworthy.

But the parallels drawn between conditions now and in 2007 are striking. The best example came from JPMorgan strategist Marko Kolanovic, who dug out a note published in January 2007 written by Edward Marrinan, a fixed income strategist at the bank at the time.

Marrinan argued that markets were going through three distinct and dangerous phases that look strikingly similar to what’s playing out now.

Read more here.

Oil was steady near $US92 a barrel after dropping the most in eight weeks in the previous session on technical resistance and speculation the Saudis will start restoring output if prices get too high.

West Texas Intermediate was subdued after a rollercoaster session on Thursday in which it rose above $US95 a barrel at one point but closed down 2.1 per cent. Futures are still up for the week and month, and are heading for their biggest quarterly gain since March 2022 following output cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The pullback came after WTI’s 14-day relative strength index rose past a threshold that signalled it may have been overbought.