Can ASX ride lithium, uranium wave to another all-time high?

Asia-Pacific markets are set to open higher on Friday, extending gains from Thursday as Wall Street’s tech rally continued.

In Asia, investors will react to August inflation figures out from India late Thursday, with showed that the consumer price index rose 3.65 per cent year-on-year, rising from a five-year low.

This was above July’s revised figure of 3.6 per cent and also beat expectations of 3.5% from economists polled by Reuters.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 is set to rise and breach its all-time closing high of 8114.7, with futures standing at 8115 compared to its last close of 8075.7.

The local share market climbed to a nine-day high on Thursday, with gains across the board despite a slightly higher-than-expected US inflation readout that diminished the chances of a supersized rate cut.

The ASX200 rose 87.8 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 8,075.7.

It rose a further 47 points to 8123.5 after the first few minutes of trade on Friday.

Every sector finished in the green, with energy and tech the biggest gainers, climbing 2.3 and 2.4 per cent, respectively.

Uranium and nickel developers spiked after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would consider restricting exports of both commodities in retaliation for Western sanctions.

Russia accounted for 27 per cent of the enriched uranium supplied to US commercial nuclear reactors last year, Reuters reported.

Yellowcake companies Deep Yellow and Boss Energy were the best and second-best gainers in the ASX200, rising 13.5 and 10.7 per cent, while peer Paladin Energy was No. 4 with a 9.1 per cent gain.

Nickel Industries climbed 9.1 per cent and nickel-copper-cobalt-lithium miner IGO rose 6.8 per cent.

Other lithium companies also built on Wednesday’s strong gains after China’s CATL suspended production at two major mines in Jiangxi Province.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 could go either way on Friday based off futures data, with the contract in Chicago at 36,945 and its counterpart in Osaka at 36,660 compared to the previous close of 36,833.27.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 17,294, higher than the HSI’s last close of 17,240.

Futures for mainland China’s CSI 300 stood at 3176, just slightly higher than the index’s last close, a near six-year low of 3172.47 on Thursday.

Overnight in the US, the S&P 500 gained 0.75 per cent, marking a four-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.58 per cent, while the Nasdaq Composite saw the largest gain, rising one per cent.

Thursday saw the last major data point for the US economy before the Federal Reserve meeting next week, as the country’s producer price index rose 0.2 per cent month on month, in line with expectations from Dow Jones. On a year-on-year basis, headline PPI rose 1.7 per cent.

CNBC