The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) this morning (28 May) took its lead from US markets, which were buoyed by positive Europe-US trade interactions and renewed optimism among US consumers.
The S&P/ASX200 rose 43.3 points, or 0.52%, to 8,450.9 points by 10.30am (AEST).
Over the past five trading sessions, the index has gained 0.76% but sits 1.91% below its one-year peak.
In the US, the Consumer Confidence Index climbed to 98 points, a rise of 12.3 points, in May compared to April’s 85.7 points.
The Expectations Index also strengthened 17.4 points to 72.8 points.
However, in Australia consumer confidence weakened by 1.8 points to 87 points.
Weekly inflation expectations ticked up 0.2 percentage points to 4.7%, while the four-week moving average edged back 0.1 percentage point to 4.7%.
Economic confidence for the next 12 months retreated 4.9 points, while economic confidence for the next five years eased 2.7 points.
ANZ Economist Sophia Angala says there was a broad-based fall across the sub-indices despite the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 25-basis point rate cut last week.
“This may have been influenced by the RBA’s post-meeting commentary being more dovish than anticipated and the weaker outlook for growth, employment and inflation it expects from global trade uncertainty,” she says.
“We continue to expect progress to be made in negotiations between the US and its trading partners.
“This combined with Australia’s expected resilience, particularly with regards to the labour market, will likely lead to a relatively shallow easing cycle. We expect a 25-basis-point rate cut in August and another in Q1 2026.”
Seven of the 11 sectors were higher in early trade. Materials was the best performing sector, advancing 0.15% shortly after the opening bell and having gained 0.34% over the past five trading sessions.
Industrials, however, slid 0.28%, utilities dipped 0.26% and energy edged back 0.03%.
S&P/ASX200 uranium producer Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) retreated 1.91% to $4.12 this morning, while gold miner West African Resources (ASX:WAF) slid 1.68% to $2.64.
At the smaller end of the market, Pivotal Metals (ASX:PVT) shares got a 50% kick up to $0.009 after the company revealed it has identified gold targets in the Lorraine Mine within its wholly owned Belleterre-Angliers Greenstone Belt projects in Québec in Canada.
Juniors Riversgold (ASX:RGL) and Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY) also found themselves among the top movers.
Riversgold jumped 25% to $0.005, while Locksley advanced 28.57% to $0.063 on news it is raising $1.47 million at $0.04 per share via a “heavily oversubscribed” placement to sophisticated and institutional investors.
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: iStock
