Closing Bell: RBA pulls the reins, but ASX backs a late winner

• RBA hikes rates to 4.85% as inflation outlook worsens
• Oil gets belted, sending Qantas and Virgin sharply higher
• ASX comes home late to finish 0.34% up on Cup Day

It’s Melbourne Cup Day, obviously. A day on which every Victorian Stockhead employee forced to work has already booked time off in lieu – along with time off for missed Grand Final Day, Shane Warne Day, Leigh Matthews Day, Merv Hughes Day, Dame Edna Day, Ned Kelly Day, AFL Trade Rumour Day and Crap Weather Day.

Oh, also… a horse called Point of Law won a race.

The ASX came out of the gates nicely, then spent the afternoon giving most of it back before the actual nags had even run.

An early rise of around 0.6% had disappeared by RBA o’clock, with the index briefly slipping into the red after the Reserve Bank duly whacked another 25 basis points onto the cash rate.

But then, around the time Point of Law was doing its thing at Flemington, the ASX suddenly remembered how to run as well, charging back to finish 0.34% higher.

That takes rates to 4.85% – their highest in 18 years – although the decision was hardly unanimous. Six board members voted to hike and three wanted to “leave the bloody thing alone”. Not sure if that was an actual quote from the meeting, but possibly.

The RBA also pushed its inflation forecasts higher, now expecting inflation to stay above 3% for most of 2027. It gave no explicit signal that another hike is coming, which was at least something for mortgage holders to cling to while sobbing quietly into a mid-strength beer.

Energy stocks were meanwhile getting trampled after Brent crude fell about 8% to US$104/bbl on renewed hopes Washington and Tehran might try talking instead of firing pointy, explosive things at each other.

That was beaut news for the airlines. Qantas (ASX:QAN) jumped around 6% and Virgin Australia (ASX:VGN) about 7% as the market contemplated the exotic possibility of cheaper jet fuel.

Tech also found a pulse after three straight down days, while AMP (ASX:AMP) continued its own private nightmare, falling another 7%-plus.

TLDR? RBA hiked, oil got slaughtered, airlines took off and the ASX backed a late winner.

Here’s what else caught our eye…

• Anthropic says quarterly revenue has exploded to about US$17bn, but it also posted a US$23.3bn quarterly loss and is sitting on roughly US$895bn of future compute and infrastructure commitments. Claude had better be able to mow the lawn soon.
• Oracle is raising US$20bn through debt and shares, Meta is sniffing around another US$20bn bond deal and Alphabet just raised €6bn. Did AI just discover Afterpay?
• Pimco boss Emmanuel Roman reckons AI financing could hit US$10 trillion over the next five years and eventually become “too much”. Hey Emmanuel, I think we passed “a bit much” somewhere around trillion number four.
• Apple beat quarterly revenue expectations but slipped after hours as rising memory costs and spending on Siri weighed on its margin outlook. “Hey Siri, find me a cheaper Siri.”
• Animal rescuers in Virginia found a grounded hawk and eventually diagnosed the problem: she was simply too fat to fly after allegedly helping herself to the neighbourhood chickens. She weighed nearly twice the normal amount. Absolute unit.

Movers and Shakeouts

Real estate absolutely bolted on Cup Day, up 2.55%, while consumer discretionary gained 1.91% and telcos added 1.50%.

Staples also had a decent run at +1.30%, with tech up 0.90% and industrials 0.83%.

At the other end, energy got taken out the back after oil’s overnight collapse, down a hefty 3.47%. Healthcare lost 0.74%, utilities slipped 0.24% and materials were just 0.09% lower.

The broader market still got home, with the ASX 200 up 0.34%, the All Ords up 0.28% and the Small Ords up 0.36%.

Tech was the strongest major index at +0.71%, while resources fell 0.70%.

So, seven sectors up, four down, and energy finished somewhere near the mounting yard.

TLDR? Property bolted, energy got scratched and the ASX technically made it over the finish line.

ASX Leaders

Today’s best-performing stocks (including small caps) intraday:

Code Name Last % Change Volume Market Cap ENV Enova Mining Limited 0.0015 50% 49000 $2,277,609 FHS Freehill Mining Ltd. 0.0015 50% 1400 $4,666,520 OVT Ovanti Limited 0.0015 50% 170324 $1,331,674 VEN Vintage Energy 0.0015 50% 508332 $2,440,336 BLU Blue Energy Limited 0.004 33% 853176 $9,035,921 MRQ Mrg Metals Limited 0.002 33% 37646 $5,379,227 CBY Canterbury Resources 0.036 33% 176397 $7,935,925 LCY Legacy Iron Ore 0.005 25% 3011684 $39,048,170 TAT Tartana Minerals Ltd 0.011 22% 656778 $3,911,461 VFY Vitrafy Life Science 2.86 22% 41895 $146,504,929 INF Infinity Metals Ltd 0.006 20% 109960 $3,537,320 PL9 Prairie Lithium Ltd 0.006 20% 4136101 $28,901,572 QXR Qx Resources Limited 0.003 20% 180000 $5,396,658 FME Future Metals NL 0.0095 19% 649906 $9,704,349 RPM RPM Automotive Group 0.013 18% 800071 $2,996,651 B4P Beforepay Group 1.37 16% 10702 $60,128,616 MHK Metalhawk. 0.115 15% 25010 $13,566,098 JNS Januselectricholding 0.55 15% 2102269 $81,765,313 NVA Nova Minerals 0.55 15% 809553 $104,974,767 ORE Orezone Gold Corp 2.94 14% 12132 $72,442,890 ERL Empire Resources 0.008 14% 2494552 $14,609,991 FIN FIN Resources Ltd 0.004 14% 15623 $6,659,296 HOR Horseshoe Metals Ltd 0.016 14% 1023411 $10,500,127 NHE Nobleheliumlimited 0.026 13% 1494999 $30,460,455 ILA Island Pharma 0.305 13% 91166 $79,946,104

ASX Laggards

Today’s worst-performing stocks (including small caps) intraday:

Code Name Price % Change Volume Market Cap NAE New Age Exploration 0.001 -50% 3529394 $8,684,525 RAD Radiopharm 0.003 -40% 24480673 $23,554,414 BPH BPH Energy Ltd 0.002 -33% 200000 $4,061,547 HPC Thehydration 0.002 -33% 71500 $1,613,965 T3D 333D Limited 0.026 -26% 104739 $7,398,842 HLM Highlandmetalsltd 0.003 -25% 6600765 $3,475,382 RNX Renegade Exploration 0.0015 -25% 4500000 $4,139,594 BEO Beonic Ltd 0.075 -25% 15282 $10,547,455 A4N Alpha Hpa Ltd 0.335 -25% 26836819 $646,138,394 MGT Magnetite Mines 0.007 -22% 1491600 $2,679,466 WMG Western Mines 0.125 -19% 155117 $20,207,586 AUR Auris Minerals Ltd 0.01 -17% 61500 $15,439,511 SMM Somerset Minerals 0.005 -17% 12635020 $9,627,750 CC5 Clever Culture 0.016 -16% 1762254 $41,462,848 ZNO Zoono Group Ltd 0.04 -15% 138660 $19,393,235 BDX Bcaldiagnostics 0.07 -15% 7500 $30,232,030 BUY Bounty Oil & Gas NL 0.006 -14% 21095 $9,513,340 FUL Fulcrum Lithium 0.06 -14% 100000 $5,285,000 ML8 Moonlight Resources 0.12 -14% 110000 $8,212,168 TXR Talonxresources Ltd 0.006 -14% 2892309 $6,523,978 WHK Whitehawk Limited 0.003 -14% 1350000 $4,896,483 FEG Far East Gold 0.1 -13% 601272 $47,958,157 KLI Killiresources 0.2 -13% 602313 $82,963,231 SBZ Schoolblazer Ltd 0.1 -13% 467065 $60,424,675 CYP Cynata Therapeutics 0.01 -13% 687221 $2,822,725

In Case You Missed It

Aroa Biosurgery (ASX:ARX) has appointed Mark Dunwoodie as chief financial officer.

Auravelle Metals (ASX:AUV) has shifted its focus to South Australia following a divestment.

Broken Hill Mines (ASX:BHM) is gearing up for fresh copper-gold drilling.

Clever Culture Systems (ASX:CC5) has secured a $2.6 million funding package to expand its APAS portfolio.

Orthocell (ASX:OCC) says its US partner has received FDA clearance for a marine-derived bone graft product.

Trading Halts

BPM Minerals (ASX:BPM) – material exploration results at Bonnie & Clyde project

One More Thing…

Today is apparently also known as Cliché Day.

Probably best avoided like the plague. But at the end of the day, it is what it is.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While the companies listed in In Case You Missed It are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article. 

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