The Clean TeQ Water Ltd (ASX: CNQ) share price rose strongly at one point today following a significant contract award.

During early morning trade, the metals recovery and water treatment solutions company’s shares hit an intraday high of 77 cents. However, some profit-taking has led its shares to retrace to 73.5 cents, up 3.52%.

What did Clean TeQ announce?

Investors are pushing Clean TeQ shares into the green after the company revealed it won an important contract.

According to its release, Clean TeQ Water advised it has been selected to design and deliver a High Recovery Reverse Osmosis (HIROX) water recovery plant in the Middle East.

The facility will be used to treat bore water used for enhanced oil recovery with minimum waste within the region.

Clean TeQ Water’s technology is able to attain more than 90% water recovery compared to traditional methods which achieve around 30%. The treatment involves reducing sulphate in bore water to prevent scaling when the water is used for reinjection.

The HIROX plant will produce approximately 1,200 tonnes per day of treated water.

Clean TeQ Water’s counterparty on the contract, National Energy Services Reunited Corp (NESR) will assist with delivery of the project.

NESR is one of the largest oilfield services providers in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company has a water conservation and management business focused on improving water availability and reuse in the oil and gas sector.

Under the agreement, NESR will be the owner and operator of the plant’s first installation.

The contract is expected to generate revenue of roughly $3 million.

Clean TeQ Water CEO, Willem Vriesendorp commented:

The award of this significant contract is further testament to our ability to provide the best water treatment solutions across multiple industries.

The Oil and Gas sector is a tremendous opportunity for the adoption of high recovery water and reuse technology. Our HIROX process is one of our world-leading treatment technologies that will ensure Clean TeQ Water can compete with the world’s best water treatment companies.

About the Clean TeQ Water share price

Since debuting on the ASX boards on 2 July, Clean TeQ Water shares have flatlined. The company’s share price hit an all-time high of $1.45 in mid-July and have treaded lower ever since.

Clean TeQ Water presides a market capitalisation of about $32.8 million, with more than 44.6 million shares outstanding.

The post Clean TeQ Water (ASX:CNQ) share price edges higher on contract win appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Why AGL, PointsBet, Premier Investments, & Star shares are charging higher
• Why US celebrities are buying into this ASX share
• Why is the Firefinch (ASX:FFX) share price halted on Friday?
• Why ASX 200 gold shares are deep in the red this year
• Could it be time to consider buying Santos (ASX:STO) shares?

Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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In afternoon trade, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is on course to end the week on a positive note. At the time of writing, the benchmark index is up 0.45% to 7,621.6 points.

Four ASX shares that are climbing more than most today are listed below. Here’s why they are charging higher:

AGL Energy Limited (ASX: AGL)

The AGL share price is up 4% to $7.48. This gain appears to have been driven by a broker note out of Credit Suisse this morning. According to the note, the broker has upgraded the energy company’s shares to a neutral rating with an improved $7.30 price target. This follows the release of a full year earnings that was largely in line with its expectations.

PointsBet Holdings Ltd (ASX: PBH)

The PointsBet share price is up 2% to $11.36. Investors have been buying this sports betting company’s shares after it announced the receipt of regulatory approval from the West Virginia Lottery Commission. This has allowed the company to launch online sports betting operations in West Virginia with immediate effect. This is the seventh operational US state for PointsBet’s premium sports betting product.

Premier Investments Limited (ASX: PMV)

The Premier Investments share price is up 5% to $28.48. This gain appears to have been driven by a bullish broker note out of UBS this morning. According to the note, the broker has resumed coverage on the retail conglomerate’s shares with a buy rating and $30.00 price target. It is positive on the company’s Peter Alexander and Smiggle brands, believing that they have strong growth potential.

Star Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX: SGR)

The Star share price has risen 5% to $3.51. Investors have been buying the casino and resorts operator’s shares amid reports that its Sydney casino could be allowed an extra 1,000 poker machines. According to the SMH, the NSW government plans to discuss whether to move under-used gaming machine licences from regional areas to the casino.

The post Why AGL, PointsBet, Premier Investments, & Star shares are charging higher appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• ASX 200 midday update: Telstra 52-week high, PointsBet rises on US update
• Here’s why the PointsBet (ASX:PBH) share price is racing higher today
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• The ASX reporting wrap-up: Telstra, AGL Energy, Downer
• Why AGL, Appen, CBA, & Rio Tinto shares are tumbling lower

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Pointsbet Holdings Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Premier Investments Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Pointsbet Holdings Ltd. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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There is an ASX share that is looking ready to break out as the world moves to a post-COVID and post-vaccination lifestyle.

Watermark Funds Management portfolio manager Harry Dudley reckons technology company Life360 Inc (ASX: 360) had a troubled first 18 months of its listed life. 

But it has now well and truly turned it around.

“The company was listed at $4.79 and after some short-lived fanfare, it continued to trade under its IPO price for nearly two years, only passing it back in March,” he posted on Livewire.

“It’s now nearly doubled this hurdle in the past 3 months.”

Life360 is an app that allows parents to track their children’s mobile phone movements. The predominant market is the US.

Some famous personalities have recently joined the shareholder register.

“Names included Vanessa Bryant (wife of the late Kobe Bryant), Tony Hawk (professional skateboarder), Nicole and Michael Phelps (Olympic swimmer),” said Dudley.

“They have agreed to also establish an advisory council to execute on the product and marketing strategy.”

Why was the Life360 share price in the doldrums?

As well as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the stock price went nowhere until March this year because of a misconception, according to Dudley.

“We think the key misunderstanding from Australian investors was that phone-based Apps have high churn rates,” he said.

“We are normally accustomed to sticky software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies such as Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) and Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC).”

However, despite a 20% revenue hit during calendar year 2020 due to COVID-19, the company is showing industry-leading growth.

“360 has grown annualised recurring revenue (ARR) from $45 million when it listed in 2018 to more than $120 million, as guided by management, for this calendar year. This is a 3-year compounded rate of 38%,” said Dudley.

“It is the clear category leader. These kinds of growth rates from a market leader give us confidence that 360 will assert dominance in the family location market.”

Share price has rocketed but it’s not expensive yet

The Life360 share price has zoomed up more than 112% this year, to trade Thursday afternoon at $8.25.

Despite this ballooning valuation, Dudley thinks it’s still a value buy.

“It still trades on a relatively cheap 6-times price-to-sales multiple. This compares favourably to Bumble Inc (NASDAQ: BMBL), its closest peer in the US, which trades on an 11-times price-to-sales metric,” he said.

“With forecast growth that outstrips that of Bumble, we think 360 is only beginning its re-rate.”

Life360’s leadership have previously flagged their plan to eventually list on the NASDAQ, which Dudley would consider another upward catalyst. 

Watermark is not the only fan of the app provider, with Bell Potter only last month including it as one of the tech stocks to buy this year.

Its price target of $7 is already history.

More recently, Credit Suisse this week rated Life360 as “outperform” while slapping a price target of $10.

The post Why US celebrities are buying into this ASX share appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• Top brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy next week
• Why Eagers Automotive, Life360, Spark, & Virgin Money UK are pushing higher

Motley Fool contributor Tony Yoo owns shares of Xero. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Life360, Inc., WiseTech Global, and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended WiseTech Global and Xero. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is having a pretty decent start to the week’s last day of trading today. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is up a healthy 0.44% to 7,622 points after making yet another new intraday all-time high of 7,631.1 points earlier this morning. However, one ASX share isn’t joining the party today. That would be the Firefinch Ltd (ASX: FFX) share price.

Firefinch shares are currently priced for 57 cents a share. And that’s where they’ll be staying, at least for the remainder of the week. That’s because just after market open this morning, Firefinch put out a market announcement.

This ASX release told investors that Firefinch has requested that its shares be placed in a trading halt. For how long? According to the company “until the earlier of the commencement of normal trading on Tuesday, 17 August 2021 or when the announcement is released to the market”.

Here’s some of what the ASX release stated this morning:

The Company seeks the trading halt pending an announcement in relation to the joint venture between the Company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co. Ltd for the development of the Goulamina Lithium Project. 

And that’s all we know for now folks!

About the Firefinch share price

Firefinch is an ASX gold and lithium miner with several assets located in the African country of Mali. This includes an 80% interest in the Morila Gold Mine. Back in June, Firefinch also announced a joint venture with the Chinese lithium and chemicals company Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co Ltd.

As my Fool colleague Brooke covered at the time, these two companies announced that they plan to jointly develop and run Firefinch’s Goulamina Lithium Project in Mali. Under the arrangement, Ganfeng is scheduled to acquire a 50% stake in the joint venture company Mali Lithium BV. 

Firefinch has estimated that the Goulamina project will have a mine life of 23 years. Ganfeng has agreed to purchase any product that the mine produces under the agreement as well. Firefinch has also previously gazetted that it plans to spin off the Goulamina project on the ASX at some point, which will be named ‘Lithium Co’. 

So Firefinch has told us that its upcoming announcement is related to this joint venture. But we shall have to wait and see what the final details are.

At the current Firefinch share price, the company has a market capitalisation of $518.87 million. In 2021 so far, Firefinch sahres are up an impressive 200% year to date.

The post Why is the Firefinch (ASX:FFX) share price halted on Friday? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Why ASX 200 gold shares are deep in the red this year
• Could it be time to consider buying Santos (ASX:STO) shares?
• Friday drinks: Why does the Endeavour (ASX:EDV) share price lift on Fridays?
• Move over Qantas (ASX:QAN). This ASX airline share is profiting during COVID
• The Global Lithium Resources (ASX:GL1) share price is up 52% in a week

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up 25% over the past 12 months and has gained 14% in 2021.

ASX 200 gold shares, however, have not contributed to that strong performance.

With a sliding gold price, it’s been a difficult period for gold miners.

In fact, if you run your slide rule across the 32 gold shares listed on the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO), you’ll find that only 5 are in the black for the calendar year 2021. Meaning 27 are showing a loss.

This, while the All Ords index itself is up 14% year to date.

The S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Gold Index (ASX: XGD) tells a similar story. Over the past year, the All Ords Gold Index is down 27%. Year to date, it’s lost 17%.

And the biggest producers, those topping the list of ASX 200 gold shares in terms of market caps, have not been spared.

How have these top ASX 200 gold shares been tracking?

Sticking with the 4 biggest gold producers by market cap:

• The Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX: NCM) share price is down 26% over the past 12 months and down 6% in 2021
• The Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) share price is down 34% over 12 months and down 30% year to date
• The AngloGold Ashanti CDI (ASX: AGG) share price is down 41% since this time last year and down 20% so far in 2021
• And the Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN) share price is down 31% over the past 12 months and down 25% year to date.

So, what’s dragging on ASX 200 gold shares?

Miners are leveraged to the price of gold

While many factors impact the share prices of specific ASX 200 gold shares, the price of the yellow metal they dig up from the ground is a key factor.

And the gold price has been bouncing lower since hitting all-time highs of US$2,035 per troy ounce just over 1 year ago, on 7 August.

At the time of writing, an ounce of gold is worth US$1,755, down 14% from the August 2020 peak.

Now if you look at the share price losses for the ASX 200 gold shares listed above again, you’ll notice all 4 have lost significantly more than 14% in 12 months.

Why is that?

Well, you may have heard it said that gold miners are leveraged to the price of gold.

That’s because a miner’s fixed costs generally don’t change when the price of gold rises or falls.

Here’s a quick, hypothetical example.

Say it costs a company $1,200 per ounce to recover gold and bring it to market. And say the current price of gold is $1,500. The company is therefore making a profit of $300 per ounce.

Now imagine the price of gold falls by $200 to $1,300 per ounce. The miner’s profit margin is now down to $100 per ounce.

In our example, that’s a 66% reduction in profit margins from only a 13% drop in the gold price. Hence, miners are said to be leveraged to the price of the minerals they produce.

As for our top 4 ASX 200 gold shares above, you can see they’ve all been impacted by falling gold prices. Some more than others.

The post Why ASX 200 gold shares are deep in the red this year appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday
• ASX 200 edges higher, Telstra climbs, NAB up
• Healthcare, miners among top performing ASX ETFs in July

The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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It has been a tumultuous month for the Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) share price. During this timeframe, shares in the oil and gas company have fallen approximately 10%. That might not sound like much to some investors, but in the context of Santos being a $13.3 billion company, it is certainly not a meagre slump.

This brings us to the question, could now be the time to consider making space for Santos in the portfolio? As late and great investor Christopher Browne said, “Buy stocks as you would groceries: when they are on sale,” although is Santos really on sale?

Let’s review the company’s latest activities and broker insights.  

What’s going on over at Santos?

Firstly, we’ll address the elephant in the room. The most notable event happening with Santos is its efforts to merge with Oil Search Ltd (ASX: OSH). Originally Santos submitted a non-binding indicative all-scrip merger proposal to the Oil Search board in late June.

Initially, the proposal offered Oil Search shareholders 0.589 Santos shares – allowing Santos to hold 63% of the merged company. However, this proposal was then revised in early August to 0.6275 Santos shares, thereby reducing Santos’ potential stake to 61.5%.

Dampening the excitement of the merger, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape recently signalled the merged entity would need to be in the best interest of PNG and its people. The news pushed the Santos share price down 1.2% on the day.

When it rains, it pours… as further revelations arose earlier this week. This time it involved Oil Search and its management. Reportedly, complaints regarding the company’s ex-CEO are now in the spotlight as the whistleblower who made them is concerned about a fair inquiry due to the closeness between those involved.

What do experts think of the Santos share price?

In the early stages of the merger announcement, most experts were reasonably bullish on the potential for the creation of an oil and gas giant.

Analysts at UBS said, “We are supportive of the strategic rationale to merge and believe the proposed merger would be both value and FCF accretive.”

Although, my colleague Zach Bristow reported on the risks to Santos perceived by the credit rating agencies Standard & Poors (S&P) and Fitch. Both agencies highlighted concerns around the geopolitical risk posed by carrying out business in PNG.

At the time of writing, the Santos share price is down 0.08% to $6.38. It appears investors are more prone to selling while Santos dances with its merger intentions.

The post Could it be time to consider buying Santos (ASX:STO) shares? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday
• Santos (ASX:STO) share price lifts despite ratings concerns
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Wednesday
• What could the latest climate report mean for ASX 200 shares?
• Santos (ASX:STO) share price slides as UN calls “death knell” on fossil fuels

Motley Fool contributor Mitchell Lawler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Today is Endeavour Group Ltd‘s (ASX: EDV) twelfth Friday on the ASX, and it’s become apparent that on every Friday except one, its share price has increased.

There’s no clear cause of this phenomenon.

Perhaps, drinks bought at Endeavor-owned outlets spark ASX-related conversations between friends. Or maybe, as investors run to buy their weekend necessities at Dan Murphy’s or BWS, or grab a beer at their local Endeavour-owned hotel, the idea of getting on board with the beverage retailer crosses their mind.

Possible resulting boosts of market activity could, thus, inspire the Endeavour share price to gain.

This Friday, the Endeavour share price has gained 0.72%. Shares in the ASX newbie are trading for $7.03 apiece.

Let’s take a look at some theories as to why Endeavour shares gain on Fridays.

TGIF for the Endeavour share price

One theory as to why Endeavour tends to gain on Fridays is that its business is assumed to pick up over the weekend.

Using Google’s ‘popular times’ feature as a source, most Dan Murphy’s stores in the cities of Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane seem to be at their busiest between Friday afternoon and Saturday evening.

The same data on BWS outlets was much less consistent. Though most BWS stores in Australia’s 3 largest cities experienced an uptick in popularity on Friday nights and Saturdays.

Endeavour also owns 332 hotels, 1,775 licenced venues, more than 12,000 poker machines, and 290 TABs and KENO outlets. Some may assume these would be at their busiest over the weekend. However, Endeavour hasn’t stated that’s the case.

Although, if this theory was true, Endeavour shares would assumably be traded more on a Friday. But, while some Fridays see more activity than other days of a given week, it’s not consistent enough to call a pattern.

Another theory market watchers might come to regarding the Endeavour share price’s fabulous Fridays, is that most of the company’s news comes out on a Friday. Though, that’s not the case.

Aside from the Friday before last, when Endeavour announced a new non-executive director, it has never released big news on a Friday.

In fact, aside from that one announcement, Endeavour has only released common paperwork to the ASX on Fridays.

And yet, the Endeavour share price follows a pattern of being in the green on Fridays.

Foolish takeaway

It’s tempting to draw comparisons between a weekly occurrence and a share price lifting.

However, Endeavour has traded on the ASX for 37 sessions now. Of those sessions, the Endeavour share price has only ended 10 in the red and traded flat for 3.

Therefore, the case of the Endeavour share price’s mysterious Fridays is likely just a coincidence.

The post Friday drinks: Why does the Endeavour (ASX:EDV) share price lift on Fridays? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• These 10 ASX 200 shares hit new 52-week highs this Monday
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• Here’s why the Endeavour (ASX:EDV) share price is up 10% in a month
• Why the Endeavour (ASX:EDV) share price just hit a new all-time high

Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 

The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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While the Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) share price is down 7.64% this year, the Alliance Aviation Services Ltd (ASX: AQZ) share price is in the green.

The company has been having an off couple of days, down over 5% yesterday and a further 0.36% – resulting from the release of its FY21 full-year results. Alliance, unlike Qantas, made a profit this year, and a rising one at that. For the year it made $51 million, which is up 25.3% on the prior corresponding period (pcp).

Let’s take a closer look.

Alliance is overperforming the Qantas share price

For FY21, Alliance had the following results:

• Revenue up 3% on the pcp to $308 million.
• Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of $90.5 million – up 15% on the pcp
• Operating underlying cashflow of $75.9 million, which is 73% higher on the pcp.
• Underlying earnings per share (EPS) 22.6 cents a share but no dividend paid for the year.

Alliance is a Queensland-based airliner that specialises in charter flights and group travel. While first established to meet the needs of fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) mine workers, it has since expanded into government, tourism, and corporate travel. The Australian reports that Alliance’s service has even been sought by the NRL and the Australian Open in their attempts to keep their competitions running during the COVID pandemic.

The company has a fleet of 4 aircraft, which have been in high demand during the pandemic as people struggled and/or avoided commercial flights. This has seen the Alliance share price rise to record highs, which is the converse of the Qantas share price experience during this global viral outbreak.

What did Alliance management say about the results?

Alliance Managing Director, Scott McMillan, said

Alliance has produced a record result at a time when we are investing heavily in supporting the growth of the business. The underlying business, utilising the Fokker fleet, continues to reap the benefits of past planning and investment and is the financial and operational foundation on which the E190 expansion has been built. This expansion program will provide the Company with an increase in annualised flight hours of up to 3 times by the end of FY2022.

Alliance and Qantas share price snapshot

Over the past 12 months, the Alliance share price is 18.5% higher while the Qantas share price is 26% greater. The contrast between the 52-week figures and the year-to-date figures are stark and show how quickly things can change.

At the same time, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is 14.1% higher year-to-date and up 25.2% over the year.

Alliance Aviation has a market capitalisation of $666 million and Qantas has one of $8.5 billion.

The post Move over Qantas (ASX:QAN). This ASX airline share is profiting during COVID appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• 3 reopening ASX share ideas as potential buys
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Motley Fool contributor Marc Sidarous has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Global Lithium Resources Ltd (ASX: GL1) share price is charging higher again on Friday.

Earlier today, the lithium explorer’s shares were up as much as 12.5% to a record high of 45 cents.

When the Global Lithium Resources share price hit that level, it was up 52% since the end of last week.

Why is the Global Lithium Resources share price rocketing higher?

Investors have been bidding the Global Lithium Resources share price higher this week despite there being no news out of the company.

However, Global Lithium Resources isn’t the only lithium-focused company rising this week.

The likes of Galaxy Resources Limited (ASX: GXY), Orocobre Limited (ASX: ORE), Piedmont Lithium Inc (ASX: PLL), Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS), and Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd (ASX: VUL) shares are all up strongly this week as well.

This has been driven by a very bullish broker note out of JP Morgan which reveals that the investment bank is becoming very positive on lithium. So much so, it has increased its price forecasts materially to reflect this.

Lithium price upgrades

JP Morgan’s analysts have raised their long term-lithium spodumene price forecast by 31% to $850 a tonne and their long-term lithium hydroxide price forecast by 12% to US$14,000 a tonne.

The investment bank is bullish due to its belief that there isn’t enough lithium to meet demand for the foreseeable future. This strong demand is being driven by the electrification revolution, with households turning to electric vehicles (EV) and battery power storage.

It commented: “We have rebuilt our model which is still based off JPM’s global equity team assumptions for auto sales, EV roll out, and battery capacity. The team expects total EV penetration of 45% in 2030, with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) at 21%. BEVs account for the vast majority of lithium demand due to greater battery size when compared to plug in hybrid & hybrid vehicles.”

How does this benefit Global Lithium Resources?

This could be good news for the Global Lithium Resources share price.

The company owns the Marble Bar Lithium Project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

It has defined a maiden Inferred Mineral Resource of 10.5Mt @ 1.0% Li20 at its Archer deposit, which confirms the project as a significant new greenfield lithium discovery.

If prices rise in line with JP Morgan’s forecasts, this project has the potential to be generating strong free cash flows in a few years. But time will tell if that is the case.

The post The Global Lithium Resources (ASX:GL1) share price is up 52% in a week appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• The Afterpay (ASX:APT) share price history: The major highlights (and low points)
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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro owns shares of Galaxy Resources Limited. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share is one that has certainly commanded a lot of attention over the past few years. Afterpay shares are famously (perhaps infamous) for their volatility. After all, this was an ASX 200 share which fell almost 70% over just one month at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year, only to add more than 1,100% over the subsequent 11 months.

Afterpay is of course back at the front of the ASX 200 news feed recently, thanks to the blockbuster announcement last week that the US payments giant Square Inc (NYSE: SQ) is attempting to acquire Afterpay in full.

Since investors received Square’s offer to swallow Afterpay for an all-scrip price of 0.375 shares of Square for every share of Afterpay held, the Afterpay share price has been slowly edging higher. Today, it’s currently going for $132.40 a share, up 0.66% for the day.

So now that the Afterpay share price looks as though it might have found a Square groove, let’s take a look back at this company’s major highlights (and lowlights) over the past few years.

Afterpay share price bared

Here’s the Afterpay share price over the past 5 years:

As you can see, it’s been one heck of a ride. So as we discussed earlier, Afterpay had a nasty crash last year with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. On February 21, 2020, Afterpay was riding high at what was then a record high of around $38-39 a share. But by March 23, Afterpay had fallen below $9, wiping more than 70% from the market capitalisation of the company in just a month.

Before this dramatic crash, Afterpay could seemingly do no wrong. Afterpay shares more than doubled across 2019, rising from around $12 at the start of the year, but finishing it at more than $30 a share. Before that, we saw similar growth in 2017 and 2018 as well.

A 2020 to remember… thanks to Tencent

But this company really stepped on the gas over the period following the COVID crash last year. Perhaps the most dramatic day in Afterpay’s then-history came in late April 2020. That was when investors found out that the Chinese e-commerce giant Tencent Holdings Ltd had acquired a 5% stake in the BNPL company.

At the time, Afterpay was still in recovery mode from the COVID crash, with investors still nervous that a recession-induced wave of defaults may have been coming the company’s way. But this vote of confidence from Tencent seemed to dispel these doubts and really lit a rocket under the Afterpay share price. Over the next month, investors would send Afterpay shares from around $30 to over $50. That’s a rough 70% jump.

The company hasn’t looked back since. The Afterpay share price continued to climb, topping out at a record $160.05 a share by February 2021.

Since February, Afterpay shares had slowly started to sink back towards $100 a share, and even sank below $90 at one point back in May. However, the Square deals emergence has once again resulted in a re-rating of Afterpay’s value.

And that brings us to today.

So what lies in store for the Afterpay share price going forward?

Well, as long as this deal is in play, Afterpay’s share price looks set to be tied to that of Square. But that won’t mean that Afterpay won’t still be one of the most watched ASX 200 shares until the day its stock leaves the ASX boards. If or when that does happen, ASX investors will still be able to indirectly buy Afterpay through Square’s proposed ASX listing.

The Afterpay share price has gripped and excited ASX investors for years now. If Afterpay’s independence finally comes to an end, it will be the end of an ASX era.

The post The Afterpay (ASX:APT) share price history: The major highlights (and low points) appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen owns shares of Square. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO and Square. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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