Market Update & Important Indicators:
U.S. stock indexes climbed intraday, buoyed by gains in shares of financial companies. Stocks have largely bounced back since last Friday, when they posted their biggest weekly drop in months. Some investors say data pointing to health in the U.S. economy should help stocks keep moving upward, even as uncertainty lingers over the Trump administration's ability to push through its agenda. A fresh round of upbeat economic data lifted stocks, government bond yields and the dollar. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 62 points, or 0.3%, to 20721 intraday. The S&P 500 added 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2%. The U.S. gold price was down for the day, falling 0.9% to 1,242.50 US$/oz.
European stocks rose for a third-straight day, with the German benchmark logging its highest close since April 2015 on the back of a sliding euro. The DAX 30 index rose 0.4% to end at 12,256.43, just 118 points short of its all-time closing high of 12,374.73 reached April 10, 2015. For the quarter, the index was looking at a 6.8% rally, its third quarterly rally in a row. The advance in Frankfurt came as the euro slumped to an almost two-week low after disappointing German inflation data and a Reuters report that the European Central Bank is trying to rein in expectations that a rate hike could come as soon as December. German inflation in March fell to 1.5% from 2.2% in February, according to a flash estimate, missing analysts’ forecasts. March inflation data for the Eurozone is due on Friday at 10 a.m. Eurozone consumer confidence for March was confirmed at minus 5 points. The Stoxx Europe 600 index added 0.5% to 380.46, closing at its highest since December 2015, according to FactSet data.
Asia markets saw a drop in Chinese and Japanese shares. There was a pullback in Chinese domestic stock markets, which staged their biggest intraday drop this year amid continued liquidity worries and steep declines in shares of newly listed stocks. The Shanghai Composite Index ended down 1% in its fourth-straight session of declines, while Shenzhen shares shed 2%. The People's Bank of China refrained from open-market operations for a fifth-successive session. Most of China's economic news has been good in recent months, but its central bank is tightening policy, commodity prices have stopped climbing and there is a reduction in corporate sector debt, he said. Elsewhere in Asia, the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong declined 0.4%, while markets in Taiwan and South Korea were fractionally lower. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.8% amid thin volumes, as earlier declines in Treasury yields weighed on financial stocks.
Australian shares extended a rally to set another 23-month high, as a sharp fall in U.S. oil products inventories lit a fire under crude futures and boosted energy stocks. The S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 0.4%, or 22.7 points, at 5896.2, rising for the fourth-straight session to reach its highest level since April 2015.Energy stocks were mostly higher, after U.S. crude climbed 1.5% to US$49.07 a barrel on a report showing larger-than-anticipated declines in inventories of crude products including gasoline.
The London Metal Exchange's three-month copper contract closed up 0.83% at $5,956/t. Mostly all other base metals finished higher on Thursday. Aluminium prices rose 0.5% at 1,962/t, zinc prices rose 0.5% at 2,853/t, lead prices rose 0.1% at 2,344/t, whilst nickel prices also finished 1.0% higher at 10,074/t. Tin prices bucked the trend falling 0.1% at 20,179/t.
In this Issue:
Western Areas (WSA) | An odyssey to Odysseus | BUY
Market Cap $629m | Current Price $2.34 | Target Price | $2.80
Western Areas (WSA) released the Pre-feasibility Study (PFS) for the Odysseus deposit, part of the greater Cosmos project. The study highlighted a pre-tax NPV7 of $292m with $190-210m total pre-production capex generating a 28% IRR and a 3.5-year payback (applying US$7.50/lb nickel and 0.75AUD/USD FX). The project could generate 87ktpa nickel in concentrate over a 7.5-year mine life at C1 costs of A$4.34/lb (assuming 74% payability) with a cash breakeven price of A$6.09/lb (US$4.57/lb). At the LME current spot price of US$4.52/lb the project is not viable, however we believe it offers optionality to expected higher future prices (Argonaut forecast US$6.50/lb long term). We see upside for the project from the inclusion of remnant ore at the AM5 and AM6 lodes as well as potential exploration discoveries. We regard Neptune as an attractive prospect where a recent RC collar intercepted 3m from 184m of massive sulphides grading 2.76%Ni.
Recent Contacts & Presentations:
Marindi Metals Ltd (MZN), Rift Valley Resources Ltd (RVY), Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BOT), Thundelarra Ltd (THX), DTI Group Ltd (DTI) OpenDNA Limited (OPN), Metro Mining Ltd (MMI), Tox Free Solutions Ltd (TOX), St George Mining Ltd (SGQ), Venturex Resources Ltd (VXR), Creso Pharma Limited (CPH), Sino Gas & Energy Holdings Ltd (SEH), Orecorp Limited (ORR) Doray Minerals Limited (DRM), Capricorn Metals Ltd (CMM) Independence Group (IGO), Cardinal Resources Limited (CDV), Metal Bank Ltd (MBK), MOD Resources Ltd (MOD) Quintis Ltd (QIN), Regis Resources Ltd (RRL), Apollo Minerals Ltd (AON), Ironbark Zinc Ltd (IBG), Sovereign Metals Ltd (SVM)
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