Surprising commodity spike leaves ASX finishing week on high, offsetting US weakness

The ASX 200 finished the week strongly off the back of surging commodity stocks and an unexpected business partnership

An unexpected business partnership breakdown saw shares in a commodity rise, helping to guide the Aussie market higher and offsetting weakness out of the US.

The benchmark ASX 200 index closed up Friday, gaining 49.30 points or 0.60 per cent to 8,250.50.

The broader All Ordinaries is up 46.90 points or 0.55 per cent to finish the week on 8511.90 points.

The Australian dollar briefly dipped below 62 US cents again overnight and remains around a two-year low.

It has recovered from a covid low of 61.89 US cents during Thursday’s trading.

Uranium stocks were the clear winner during Friday’s trading with Deep Yellow soaring 9.01 per cent to $.127 while fellow miners Boss Energy and Paladin Energy were up 5.65 per cent to $2.62 and 4.81 per cent to $8.27 respectively.

The ASX 200 finished the week strongly off the back of surging uranium stocks. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

The surge in uranium stocks came after a release from Cameco, one of the world’s largest uranium companies, announced a key mining site was being shut down.

Kazatomprom has informed the uranium miner that the extension was not received as expected due to the delayed submission of the necessary documentation to the Ministry of Energy.

In light of this, Kazatomprom has directed the joint venture to halt operations to avoid potential violation of Kazakhstan legislation.

Kazatomprom holds a 60 per cent interest in JV Inkai, while Cameco owns a 40 per cent share.

“We are disappointed and surprised by this unexpected suspension and we will be seeking further clarification on how this transpired, as well as the potential 2025 and 2026 production and financial impacts (including on future dividends), and what Cameco can do to help Kazatomprom and JV Inkai restart mining operations,” a note from Cameco said.

While this is bad news for Cameco it sent the Australian uranium miners surging higher on falling supply of the commodity.

The A-REITs sector was the strongest performing up 1.50 per cent, leading an overall strong day for the market, which saw 10 of the 11 sectors finishing in the green.

Stocklands group traded 1.45 per cent higher to close at $4.9- while Charter Hall Group rose 1.10 per cent to $14.66.

In a strong day for the markets, 10 of the 11 sectors finished higher. Picture NewsWire / Gaye Gerard.

Zip continued where it left off in 2024, up 4 per cent to $3.09 during Friday’s trading.

It was also a sea of green for the big four banks which all surged on Friday.

Led by Commonwealth Bank, which is up 0.95 per cent to $155.03, marginally beating ANZ which grew 0.94 per cent to $28.86. NAB and Westpac are up 0.83 and 0.71 per cent respectively.

On the flip side, the likes of Fortecuse Metals, Yancoal Australia and the A2 Milk were amongst the weakest stocks on the ASX on Friday.

On Wall Street, all three stock indexes closed in the red.

The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite each slipped 0.2 per cent while the Dow Jones closed 0.4 per cent lower.

This was largely off the back of weakness out of Tesla which fell by 6.08 per cent to $US379.28 on Friday morning as the car manufacturer announced decreasing vehicle sales for the first time in a decade.

In a statement overnight the company said it delivered 1,789,226 vehicles in 2024, down from 1,808,581 in the prior year.

In the final quarter of the calendar year analysts expected sales of around 504,770 vehicles with Tesla actually delivering 495,570.

Originally published as Surprising commodity spike leaves ASX finishing week on high, offsetting US weakness