Last Orders: ASX gains over 1 per cent, led by 4 per cent surge in energy stocks

The ASX 200 rose 1.05 per cent today to 7,218 and the ASX Emerging Companies Index was up 1.25 per cent to 2,194.

Energy was the best performing sector, gaining 4 per cent after gains in oil prices overnight. Utilities gained over 2.6 per cent and another 5 sectors gained over 1 per cent, including resources which rose 1.92 per cent.

Only 2 sectors finished in the red – tech which dropped over 1 per cent, and health which declined 0.48 per cent.

The ASX was also boosted by GDP figures today which came in at 1.8 per cent growth for the March quarter. Deloitte said this means Australia is now bigger than it was pre-COVID, which was only true with 5 other economies (China, Chile, Lithuania, Romania and Korea Republic).

The top ASX stock with news was diversified technology company Synertec Corporation (ASX:SOP), which provided a trading update on revenues and product development across its various tech and engineering units.

ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY’VE MISSED

Fintech Douugh (ASX:DOU) will offer its users forex services having formed an alliance with forex provider OFX (ASX:OFX). Douugh says its customers would benefit from OFX’s exchange rates compared to that of the major banks.

The partnership between NSX (ASX:NSX) and ISignThis (ASX:ISX) just got deeper with the latter chipping $1 million into a $3.5 million capital raising for the secondary exchange and will own just over 20 per cent. The NSX says the proceeds will help it find a new CEO and upgrade its IT systems and NASDAQ training engine.

Altura Minerals (ASX:AJM) has re-established an earn in agreement with fellow lithium explorer Sayona Mining (ASX:SYA). Altura will be able to earn a 51 per cent interest in a project by spending $1.5 million on exploration over three years.

Valor Resources (ASX:VAL) unveiled high grade results from rock and chip sampling at its copper-silver project in Peru. Results included 563g/t gold and 1.11 per cent copper as well as 444g/t gold and 2.84 per cent copper.

TechGen Metals (ASX:TG1) has commenced soil sampling at its Ida Valley Gold project. The program will consist of 1,100 samples where previous soil and rock chip sampling has identified gold anomalies.

HR tech platform Xref (ASX:XF1) has appointed a new non-executive director in Lija Wilson who is CEO and founder of digital talent platform Puffling. The company says her experience (which includes stints as CMO-level roles at TEDx, Qantas and Fairfax) and advice would be highly valued.

California-based semiconductor stock Revasum (ASX:RVS) reported its first purchase order for two of its Silicon Carbide polishers. The order was from an unnamed NASDAQ-listed semiconductor manufacturer and the first will be be shipped to the European facilities of this company in August and the second in the first half of next year.