ASX Large Caps: Banks, Tech lift ASX 0.5pc; Worley down 2pc after corruption claims

ASX up 0.5% led by Banks, Tech and Discretionary stocks
Crypto market alight after BTC ETFs approval last night
Worley in the middle of corruption allegations

The Aussie stock market lifted 0.5% on Thursday following a strong session in New York overnight.

The big four banks led, up by around 1%. Discretionary and Tech stocks also lifted after the softer than expected CPI number yesterday bolstered hopes of an RBA rate cut.

In the Discretionary sector, JB Hi-Fi (ASX:JBH) was the best performer today, up over 3%.

Metals miners like South32 (ASX:S32), Northern Star (ASX:NST) also featured in the top 10 winners list.

The market focus, however, was on the crypto market after the US SEC approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs overnight: Bitwise, Grayscale, Hashdex, BlackRock, Valkyrie, BZX, Invesco, VanEck, WisdomTree, Fidelity and Franklin.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at US$46,618, which was up 1.5% from 24 hours ago.

“BTC will have to be bought on market to fill the ETFs. As a long term investor if you know there are buyers coming, why sell before they have to buy?,” wrote Magnet Capital’s co-founders, Egor Sidelska and Benjamin Celermajer.

Across the region, Asian stock markets also advanced ahead of the US inflation report due later tonight, which should help clarify the path ahead for Federal Reserve policy.

“Ultimately, core CPI inflation will likely prove sticky above the Fed’s 2% average inflation target through 2024, even as the pace of housing inflation slows,” wrote Bloomberg Economics.

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Code Name Price % Change Volume Market Cap SLX Silex Systems 4.90 6.52 1,405,724 $1,085,351,945 AX1 Accent Group Ltd 2.17 5.34 1,663,201 $1,159,889,584 ILU Iluka Resources 6.91 4.62 2,710,239 $2,811,813,193 S32 South32 Limited 3.51 3.85 22,362,107 $15,308,893,960 JBH JB Hi-Fi Limited 56.63 3.57 435,165 $5,978,382,081 PLS Pilbara Min Ltd 3.81 3.25 19,948,737 $11,104,936,717 TLX Telix Pharmaceutical 10.07 2.97 706,421 $3,166,046,960 GQG GQG Partners 1.80 2.86 1,368,263 $5,168,414,045 JLG Johns Lyng Group 6.73 2.75 505,142 $1,820,073,318 LNW Light & Wonder Inc. 119.51 2.73 73,086 $1,776,119,460 CMM Capricorn Metals 4.51 2.73 369,700 $1,656,434,853 LTR Liontown Resources 1.51 2.73 5,374,739 $3,548,207,666 PXA Pexagroup 10.99 2.71 161,797 $1,898,163,586 RED Red 5 Limited 0.30 2.59 3,616,921 $1,004,502,159 IGO IGO Limited 7.97 2.57 2,151,010 $5,883,970,907 MP1 Megaport Limited 8.93 2.41 278,784 $1,387,568,343 NIC Nickel Industries 0.66 2.34 5,015,264 $2,742,918,323 CAR CAR Group Limited 31.27 2.32 385,274 $11,521,892,954 CCP Credit Corp Group 16.09 2.32 89,537 $1,070,010,976

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Asset manager and services company, Pinnacle Investment (ASX:PNI), rose today after providing a market update.

The company said nine affiliates have crystallised performance fees for the six months ended 31 December 2023 (1H FY24) totalling approximately $41.9 million at 100% gross in aggregate.

Pinnacle’s net share of these performance fees, after tax payable by the affiliates on this revenue, is in the order of $12.3 million.

Additionally, PNI said its Principal Investments (PI) totalled approximately $136 million at 31 December 2023, compared to $164 million at 31 December 2022.

However, the company has issued this warning:

“It is too early in the process of finalisation of half year results to have any certainty of their outcome, and it would therefore be imprudent at this time to comment in any detail on the likely net result.”

BIG CAP LOSERS

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Code Name Price % Change Volume Market Cap IFL Insignia Financial 2.41 -3.41 1,098,557 $1,659,900,615 BFL Bsp Financial Group 5.45 -3.20 26,516 $2,630,448,482 WOR Worley Limited 16.01 -3.15 1,892,295 $8,707,233,752 AWC Alumina Limited 1.12 -2.83 21,325,263 $3,336,933,630 WHC Whitehaven Coal 8.01 -2.55 3,648,770 $6,876,858,444 LTM Arcadium Lithium PLC 9.06 -2.37 1,493,661 $5,035,441,439 TUA Tuas Limited 3.19 -2.15 186,759 $1,520,394,793 STX Strike Energy Ltd 0.46 -2.13 6,717,877 $1,345,246,154 RDX Redox Limited 2.32 -2.11 22,026 $1,244,442,984 RMS Ramelius Resources 1.54 -2.07 4,482,744 $1,786,251,995 YAL Yancoal Aust Ltd 5.26 -1.87 1,339,997 $7,077,555,382 SGR The Star Ent Grp 0.54 -1.82 10,368,198 $1,577,774,482 FMG Fortescue Ltd 27.09 -1.72 3,775,666 $84,856,273,140 SQ2 Block 102.62 -1.72 112,462 $3,650,309,124

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Global engineering group Worley (ASX:WOR) dropped almost -4% after coming out of trading halt, amid allegations of corruption by Worley’s employees in the US made by Ecuador.

Worley denied that its employees and management acted corruptly or in bad faith, following an international tribunal ruling in Ecuador that the company bribed foreign government officials linked to contracts to rebuild Ecuador’s oil and gas industry.

As a result of the tribunal finding, Worley said it will have to pay Ecuador approximately US$6 million, which it said is not material to Worley’s FY2024 results.

The company also confirmed that a net receivables amount owed to Worley of $58 million will remain outstanding.

Strike Energy (ASX:STX) fell almost -5% on the back of an announcement by Triangle Energy (ASX:TEG).

Triangle has revealed that it has uncovered promising new oil and gas opportunities in its Perth Basin acreage. Triangle’s interpretation of the Bookara 3D seismic Block L7 and EP 437 has revealed 12 new oil prospects.

Eleven prospects in block L7 have summed best estimate Prospective Resources of 36 million barrels of oil (MMbbl).

Triangle has farmed out a 50% interest in L7 and EP 437 to Talon Energy (now owned by Strike Energy) and New Zealand Oil and Gas (25% each).

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