Investors were busy last month, with S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) energy shares being a key focus in November.
Sharesies is an online broker platform, and each month it produces a report detailing the most popular picks.
Of course, this is just the data from one broker, so readers should keep that in mind.
From the report, we learned that there was twice as much buying volume as selling volume. For Sharesies, this has been consistent for the last six months.
It also noted that an increase in the strength of the Australian dollar, relative to the United States dollar, "may have been a driver behind and uptick in US investments buying relative to other markets".
November's most purchased by value
According to Sharesies, there were two ASX lithium shares and two ASX coal shares in the top five most bought, by value.
The most popular investment was Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA).
In second place was New Hope Corporation Limited (ASX: NHC).
The fourth most popular investment was Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO).
In fifth place was Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC).
To complete the list, in third place was property business Charter Hall Group (ASX: CHC).
With energy being a key theme in 2022, perhaps it's unsurprising that old and new ASX 200 energy shares are getting investor attention going into the end of the year.
What's going on with these ASX energy shares?
Firstly we'll look at what's going on with the ASX coal shares.
After Russian invaded Ukraine, there were a number of knock-on effects. One was a rise in energy prices as some countries looked to find alternative sources of energy.
This sent the coal price soaring, and while it's not at a 52-week high, it's still very high. And this means both New Hope and Whitehaven are generating large profits.
With profits jumping higher, both companies are paying much larger dividends. They also launched share buybacks, aimed at boosting shareholder returns.
For the ASX lithium shares, they are making operational progress amid strong demand for lithium.
Sayona Mining said in its update that the restart of the company's North American Lithium (NAL) operation is getting closer, as 98% of procurement activities are now complete and permitting activities are 96% finished. Operations are on track to be restarted in the first quarter of 2023.
For Core Lithium, it held its annual general meeting (AGM) last month. The business has started transporting 'spodumene direct shopping ore' (DSO) product from its Finniss lithium mine near Darwin in the Northern Territory. Crushing of the lithium ore commenced on 9 November 2022 and loading onto a ship at Darwin Port was expected to start at the end of November.
It will be interesting to see if December is another solid month of interest for ASX 200 energy shares.
