Precious and industrial metals were slightly buoyant overnight as investors await the outcome of negotiations between the US and its trading partners. Also supporting metals was the weaker US dollar.
The headline ANZ China Commodity Index rose 0.1%, with precious metals rising 0.9% and industrial metals advancing 0.3%.
ANZ Senior Economist Adelaide Timbrell says base metals steadied as the focus stayed on the US Government, which is in talks with 17 key trading partners to flesh out deals after Trump unveiled his reciprocal tariffs earlier in April.
Overnight, aluminium was trading at around US$2,428 ($3,780) a tonne, copper was level at US$9,374 a tonne, nickel was fetching US$15,545 a tonne and zinc was selling for US$2,647 a tonne.
Gold also strengthened on the weaker US dollar and increased investor demand as US bonds dropped.
“The prospect of weak economic data also provided some support,” Timbrell says.
At the time of writing, gold was up 0.5% at US$3,337 an ounce.
Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX200 was up 37.1 points, or 0.46%, at 8,034.2 points by 10.30am (AEST).
Sectors were mixed in early trade. Energy and materials were in the green on advances of 0.15% and 0.13%, respectively, while industrials was down 0.1%. The energy sector is ahead 5.54% over the past five days.
Uranium producer Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) topped the early movers with a 3.57% gain to trade at $2.90 after announcing its first quarter of positive free cashflow from its Honeymoon Uranium Project on production ramp up and strong margins.
The company produced 295,819 pounds of drummed uranium, a 116% increase over the December quarter, and 246,869 pounds of IX production, marking a 15% quarter-over-quarter rise. This puts Boss on track to meet its FY25 production guidance of 850,000 ounces of uranium.
Meanwhile, diversified miner Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) climbed 3.1% to $2.17 and gold miner Spartan Resources (ASX:SPR) advanced 2.84% to around $2.
On the opposite end of the scale, gold producer Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) fell 3.31% to $20.18, Gold Road Resources (ASX:GOR) retreated 1.3% to $3.04 and Capstone Copper (ASX:CSC) slipped 1.18% to $7.55.
Australian quarterly consumer price index (CPI) data is due out tomorrow (30 April), which could provide some lift for markets. Economists expect core CPI to rise 0.7%, which would lower the annual inflation rate from 3.2% to 2.9%, in line with the Reserve Bank of Australia’s target.
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 & Stock
