Australian sharemarket maintains upward momentum, mining stocks the big winners

Mining stocks drove the Australian sharemarket higher, helped by a strong lead from Wall Street, while a telco takeover target soared.

The Australian sharemarket maintained its upwards momentum after last week’s strong performance, helped by a strong lead from Wall Street, with miners the big winners.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index briefly breached 6900 before finishing 0.59 per cent higher at 6880.7 - a level not seen since February 25 last year.

The All Ordinaries Index gained 0.67 per cent to 7160.8.

OpenMarkets Group chief executive Ivan Tchourilov said the ASX continued its upward trend as a big earnings season week kicked off.

Leading the charge was telecommunications firm Vocus Group after it confirmed it had received a takeover offer from Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets Holdings of $5.50 per share - a 25 per cent premium to Friday’s closing price.

“They’re interested in Vocus’ fibre network footprint and believe they have good strategic assets that will play a big part in the development of the Australian telecommunications sector,” Mr Tchourilov said.

Telecommunications firm Vocus Group has received a non-binding takeover offer.

“They’ll conduct due diligence now and will likely put forward a binding offer based on their findings.“

Vocus said exploring the potential for a transaction was in shareholders’ best interests.

Shares in Vocus rocketed 12.79 per cent to $4.94.

Another big winner was buy now pay later player Zip Co. Reports it is considering a dual listing in the US sent its shares soaring 12.9 per cent to $9.80.

Larger rival Afterpay hit a record high of $156.50 in intraday trade before pulling back to $153.46, up 1.43 per cent.

Sigma Healthcare leapt 7.35 per cent to 73 cents after flagging a jump in full year earnings following a strong second half performance. The company also said it expected to achieve its previously stated 2023 target.

Mining stocks fared well on the back of largely higher commodities prices.

Lithium and iron ore miner Mineral Resources leapt 5.63 per cent to $36.94, rare earths producer Lynas put on 7.14 per cent to $5.25 and mineral sands miner Iluka Resources advanced 4.91 per cent to $6.84.

Mining stocks drove the ASX gains. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

Newcrest, Australia’s largest gold producer, added 1.37 per cent to $25.21.

Ora Banda Mining put on 1.67 per cent to 30.5 cents after reporting its first gold pour at the Davyhurst mine in Western Australia, which closed in 2018 after its previous owner collapsed.

While iron ore prices have backtracked over the past two weeks due to weak Chinese steel margins, it is “way too early to get bearish”, Macquarie researchers say.

Due to a lack of supply growth, iron ore will remain a deficit market this year even under very conservative demand assumptions, they say.

Fortescue Metals Group was up 2.11 per cent at $23.72, Rio Tinto rose 3.42 per cent to $117.20 and BHP firmed 2.37 per cent to $44.84.

ANZ climbed 0.44 per cent to $25.40, Commonwealth Bank inched 0.02 per cent lower to $88.62, National Australia Bank lifted 0.91 per cent to $25.46 and Westpac was up 1.35 per cent at $22.45.

The Aussie dollar was fetching 76.74 US cents, 55.88 British pence and 63.74 Euro cents in afternoon trade.

Originally published as Australian sharemarket maintains upward momentum, mining stocks the big winners