Materials wiped off nearly 1% on Wednesday (22 January) and headed in the opposite direction to the broader Australian market, which added more runs to the board.
The S&P/ASX 200 rose 27.4 points, or 0.33%, to 8,429.80 by the closing bell.
Over the last five days, the index has gained 2.64% and is 0.99% off its 52-week high.
Seven of the 11 sectors ended higher. Materials and energy, however, ended ‘hump day’ down 0.93% and 0.23%, respectively.
The S&P/ASX 200 uranium miners dominated. Boss Energy (ASX:BOW) rallied 14.18% to $3.22, Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) rose 10.06% to $9.19 and Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL) lifted 7.87% to $1.44.
Mineral sands miner Iluka Resources (ASX:ILU) was sold down 6.96% to $4.95 after saying it will slash 130 jobs to save roughly $20 million in 2025.
Aluminium producer Alcoa (ASX:AAI) fell 2.95% to $61.84, while metallurgical coal miner Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN) slipped 2.75% to $0.71 and BHP (ASX:BHP) retreated about 2% to $39.80.
In the small cap space, platinum group elements explorer Peako (ASX:PKO) jumped 20% to $0.003 on news.
Patagonia Lithium (ASX:PL3) was also a top mover after announcing the definition of a maiden JORC inferred resource of 3.8 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent for its Formentera Lithium Brine Project in Argentina, as reported by Mining.com.au.
The company ended the session up nearly 17% at $0.098 with 3.7 million shares changing hands over the course of the day.
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
