Market Update & Important Indicators:
U.S. markets closed were closed overnight for the President’s day public holiday.
Global stocks continued their slow climb higher Monday, even as political jitters drove steep swings in the European government bond markets. In European stock markets, the basic resources sector led Monday's gains amid a recovery in copper and oil prices. The Stoxx Europe 600 added 0.2% in its ninth advance in 10 sessions after Asian shares ended a touch firmer, drawing encouragement from Friday's late advance on Wall Street. "If [President Donald] Trump can actually execute spending in infrastructure and lower tax rates in U.S., it'll have a profound knock-on effect in the world, and that is why I'm generally positive about stock markets," said Michelle McGrade, chief investment officer at TD Direct Investing in London. Recent gains in Europe have come despite escalating concerns over Greece's bailout and coming elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands, which have rattled the region's sovereign bond markets.
In Asian markets, the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.2% in its best day since November whilst Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.5% to its highest close since August 2015. Japan's Nikkei added 0.1%, snapping a two-day losing streak. After falling on Friday, crude futures remained under pressure in Asian trading on signs that U.S. production is steadily rising, threatening to undermine efforts to reduce output by OPEC. In China, the market gained slightly overnight with China's yuan closing weaker against the U.S. dollar Monday, tracking a weaker midpoint. While there was no one "trigger point" for Monday's rally, a mixture of regulatory relaxation — including on trading stock-index futures – and improved global sentiment tracking U.S. stocks has sent more investors into mainland-listed stocks, said Vincent Chen, director of China Asset Management.
Another subdued trading day for Australian shares saw the market lose ground Monday as oil prices weakened and weak earnings reports were released. After a soft finish to a strong week on Friday, the local market continued to drift lower as investors searched for direction ahead of the Presidents Day holiday in the U.S. Still, a late recovery helped pull the market off its session lows. The S&P/ASX 200 fell 10.7 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 5795.1. The major banks added to recent gains in the wake of well-received earnings reports that was offset by weakness in energy, materials and industrial stocks.
In London, the Metal Exchange's three-month copper contract closed up 1.85% at $6,070/t. All other base metals were higher on Monday. Aluminium prices rose 1.1% at 1,889/t, lead prices rose 2.8% at 2,302/t, nickel prices rose 0.9% at 11,094/t, tin prices rose 0.9% at 19,860/t, and zinc prices rose 3.0% at 2,887/t.
In this Issue:
Dakota Minerals (DKO) | Maiden Resource for Sepeda | SPEC BUY
Market Cap $23m | Current Price $0.06
Dakota Minerals (DKO) released a Maiden Resource for its 100% owned Sepeda Lithium Project in Portugal with 10.3Mt @ 1.00% Li2O and 0.05% Tin. Whilst the project is modest in scale compared to some of its Australia domiciled peers, it is one of the largest JORC lithium pegmatite resources in Europe. DKO is pursuing a strategy to supply lithium into the European market and targeting first concentrate production in late 2018. The project benefits from its proximity to market and strong infrastructure. Potential access to cheap power should improve the viability of downstream processing to produce either lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide for the growing battery market. With estimated cash of $20m, DKO is cash backed at 5.5¢ implying little value is attributed to physical assets.
Paringa Resources (PNL) | Substantial Resource Increase | SPEC BUY
Market Cap $120m | Current Price $0.56 | Target Price $1.15
Paringa Resources (PNL) has increased the Mineral Resource of the Poplar Grove and Cypress mines (both within the Buck Creek Project complex) to 328M tons (previously 251M tons) following the incorporation of the Western Kentucky No.11 (WK No. 11) seam. The WK No.11 sits 20-24m above the WK No. 9 starting from ~35m below surface with a seam thickness ranging from 0.9m to 1.5m.
Recent Contacts & Presentations:
Threat Protect Australia Ltd (TPS), Paringa Resources Ltd (PNL), The Gruden Group Ltd (GGL), Primary Gold Ltd (PGO), Vault Intelligence Ltd (VLT), Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BOT) Orthocell Ltd (OCC), Strandline Resources Ltd (STA) Dragontail Systems Ltd (DTS), ABM Resources Ltd (ABU), Acacia Coal Ltd (AJC), Troy Resources Ltd (TRY), Hazer Group Ltd (HZR), Berkeley Energia Ltd (BKY), Sino Gas & Energy Holdings Ltd (SEH), Sovereign Metals Ltd (SVM), Kin Mining (KIN), Vital Metals Ltd (VML), Mincor Resources (MCR), Dacian Gold (DCN), Leaf Resources Ltd (LER), Alchemy Resources Ltd (ALY), OpenDNA Limited (OPN), MZI Resources Ltd (MZI), Seafarms Group Ltd (SFG)
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