The Arafura Resources Limited (ASX: ARU) share price is back on form on Thursday after recent weakness.
At the time of writing, the rare earths explorer's shares are up 11% to 34 cents.
However, despite this strong gain, the Arafura share price is still down 10% since this time last week.
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Why is the Arafura share price storming higher?
Today's gain by the Arafura share price comes despite there being no news out of the company today.
Though, it is worth noting that it is not alone in recording a strong gain today.
Fellow rare earths companies Iluka Resources Limited (ASX: ILU) and Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC) are both pushing higher today. The latter is up 4.5% in afternoon trade.
Investors have been buying these and other ASX materials shares after investor sentiment improved greatly following a strong night of trade on Wall Street.
This has seen the S&P/ASX 200 Materials index rise a sizeable 2.5% today, which compares favourably to the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) and its 1.5% gain.
Following today's gain, Arafura's shares are now up a sizeable 45% since the start of the year. Though, they are still 32% below the 52-week high of 50 cents that they reached in early June.
