ASX jumps: 6 shares you should have been watching

S&P/ASX 200 gains 0.7% – now we await the US Federal Reserve

Mike King

Mike King is a Fool.com.au Investment Analyst and Writer. He caught the investing bug more than a decade ago, at a time when the U.S. had invaded Iraq and fear reigned in the markets. His initial success as the markets took off encouraged his passion and thirst for knowledge. With 13 years behind him at one of Australia's largest domestic banks, Mike's passion for stocks led him to join a boutique funds management firm, where he stayed for four years. A seven-year stint in equity research at one of the largest investment banks in the world followed that, giving Mike a thirst to pursue his passion further. Mike holds a Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and a Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning. His passion is to help retail investors invest better, and that passion was one of his primary reasons for joining The Motley Fool Australia in late 2011. Mike has written thousands of articles since joining, including for Fairfax Media, Yahoo!7, Ninemsn and has also appeared on ABC's The Business. You can see all of Mikes' holdings here

Published September 21, 2016 4:59 pm AEST

The Australian sharemarket rose today, boosted by the Bank of Japan's decision to maintain its bond-buying program and maintain negative interest rates, which saw Japanese stocks soar. The Nikkei was up 2% at the close.

Here's a quick recap:

S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) up 0.7% to 5,339.6 points
ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) up 0.6% to 5,429.4 points
AUD/USD at US 75.55 cents
Iron Ore up 0.2% to US$55.77 a tonne, according to the Metal Bulletin
Gold up 0.1% at US$1,314 an ounce
Brent oil up 0.2% to US$46.02 a barrel

Vocus Communications Limited (ASX: VOC) was the big news of the day, with the share price crashing down 9.9% to $6.09 – exacerbated by the resignation of its CFO this afternoon.

Lithium miners Galaxy Resources Limited (ASX: GXY), Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) and Orocobre Limited (ASX: ORE) fell by 7%, 7.3% and 5.3% respectively – with fears arising that the lithium boom could end in a bust. The top four global producers are already looking at ways to increase production and capture more of the value chain.

Fertilisers and chemicals company Nufarm Limited (ASX: NUF) saw its shares rise 4.6% after it released its annual report while laboratory testing company ALS Limited (ASX: ALQ) saw its shares rise 5.4%.

Here are Wednesday's top stories:

All eyes will now turn to the US where the Federal Reserve is expected to update the market on its policy going forward – which is due to come out before the start of Australian trading on Thursday morning.

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