Happy Easter!
The RBA's decision to keep interest rates on hold for April saw early share gains of more than 1% disappear, and the S&P/ASX 200 (Indexasx: XJO) (ASX: XJO) ended up 0.5% at 5,926.0.
For some reason, the market was pricing in a 75% chance of a rate cut today, despite most economists predicting rates would stay on hold. We aren't in the game of forecasting (or guessing as we like to call it), but would happily blow our own trumpet for 'suggesting' the RBA would keep rates on hold in an article earlier this morning – except we forgot to publish it. Here's what we did write – "I'm in the 'rates on hold this month' camp, given the economic data out since the last board meeting hasn't really changed to prompt a further rate cut."
Iron ore miners felt the heat today, after the spot price tumbled over the weekend, and Atlas Iron Limited's (ASX: AGO) shares went into a voluntary trading halt, from which it may never emerge.
Flinders Mines Limited (ASX: FMS), an emerging iron ore company crashed 18.8%, while BC Iron Limited (ASX: BCI) dropped 11.6% to just 30.5 cents. Northern Iron Limited (ASX: NFE) dropped 14.3% and Gindalbie Metals Ltd (ASX: GBG) lost 8%. Arrium Limited (ASX: ARI) and Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) were also lower, losing 3.3% and 1.4% respectively. Mount Gibson Iron Limited (ASX: MGX) was also a casualty, losing 7.1% to 19.5 cents.
Graphite miner Triton Minerals Ltd (ASX: TON) fell 15.9% to 34.5 cents but is still up 11.3% over the past week. Last week the company announced a huge offtake deal, worth an estimated $2 billion over 20 years – as we covered in this article. Perhaps it was profit takers taking some gains off the table.
Biotech company Mesoblast limited (ASX: MSB) dropped 6.6% to $3.28, despite no news from the company. Mesoblast develops regenerative medicine products for the repair of damaged tissue and has a range of products designed to treat a number of different types of diseases. The Capital Group Companies, Inc recently upped its shareholding from 6.7% to 7.9% at an average price of $4.08 per share.
Transport company McAleese Ltd (ASX: MCS) closed the day down 10% at 18.5 cents, affected by the suspension of Atlas Iron. McAleese has a number of iron ore transport contracts with Atlas and says it is working with the beleaguered miner. McAleese will either be forced to cut margins or cancel contracts – neither a good outcome – as I outlined earlier today.
