The S&P/ASX 200 advanced 43 points, or 0.55%, in early trade on Tuesday (18 March) to 7,897.1 points as of 10.30am AEDT.
The index is virtually unchanged over the past five days, but is down 3.21% year to date.
Nine of the 11 sectors are higher in early trade, led by utilities which advanced 0.4%. Energy is up 0.08% and industrials inched up 0.02%, but materials was down 0.1%.
Gold Road Resources (ASX:GOR) was down 2.27% at $2.58 after announcing gold production for the Gruyere joint venture in March 2025 quarter is expected to be between 70,000 and 73,000 ounces, down from 91,631 ounces in the December 2024 quarter.
Production is anticipated to be below plan due to maintenance on the primary crusher and the failure of two conveyor belts. Gold Road says the Gruyere JV has investigated the cause of these issues and has developed recovery plans.
Commodities received a boost following positive economic data out of China.
The ANZ China Commodity Index edged up 0.1%, with precious metals and industrial metals both up 0.5%.
ANZ says copper pushed to a five-month high with the positive momentum from Q4 2024 continuing in the first two months of this year.
Industrial production rose 5.9% year-over-year year to date.
“Both retail sales (4.0%) and fixed asset investment (4.1%) are also much higher than the 2024 average figures,” Senior Economist Adelaide Timbrell says.
“In addition, China vowed to revive consumption in the world’s largest copper consuming market.
“The government unveiled a special action plan, containing 30 measures aimed at boosting spending by increasing people’s incomes. This led us to revise up our GDP forecast to 4.8% from 4.3% for 2025.”
Aluminium also gained ground. Iron ore, however, slipped on signs of continued weakness in the property sector.
The S&P/ASX200 is Australia’s leading share market index and contains the top 200 ASX-listed companies in terms of market capitalisation, and accounts for about 80% of the country’s equity market. The index is designed to measure the performance of the 200 largest index-eligible stocks listed on the ASX by float-adjusted market capitalisation.
It is recognised as the institutional investable benchmark in the country.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: ASX & iStock
