Miners keep BN30 in positive territory

Western Australian companies have outperformed the broader stock market over the six months to June 30, judging by the performance of the Business News BN30 index.

The index is a composite of 30 hand-picked WA-focused or headquartered stocks, which largely reflects the state’s economic fortunes, with a simple unweighted average of closing stock prices indexed to a base of 100 starting on the first day of trading this year.

Mining companies recovering from a soft 2015 led the BN30 rise of 3.3 per cent, a better performance than the ASX200, which was up 0.9 per cent for the period.

Check out the index here.

Iron ore miner Mineral Resources more than doubled in value as the company boosted exposure to lithium, while fellow iron ore producer Fortescue Metals Group was up 87.2 per cent.

Gold play Northern Star Resources was up 76.2 per cent - it did particularly well on Brexit day, up 8.3 per cent, as gold prices reached a record Australian dollar high of $1,826 an ounce.

Diversified miner Independence Group, which has gold and nickel operations, was up 26.9 per cent, while Woodside Petroleum was down 9.6 per cent with the oil price at low levels.

Seven West Media was up 34.8 per cent while Fleetwood Corporation enjoyed a rebound to 52 per cent higher.

On the flip side, technology companies didn’t fare so well, with Empired down 59.2 per cent after reducing earnings guidance.

Artificial intelligence player BrainChip Holdings was down 45.4 per cent, although it surged 21 per cent on June 30 thanks to its acquisition of Spikenet Technology.

In manufacturing, shipmaker Austal was 22.9 per cent lower, while chemicals producer Alexium International Group fell 18.2 per cent.

As with a number of stocks on the list, that correction followed a big run up in Alexium’s share price across 2015.