Afternoon Report | ASX rallies on inflation figures

0:00Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News afternoon report for Wednesday, 30 September 2026. I'm Mark Littomsen and every afternoon we have the five stories that happen today that you need to know about. Story number one, the local share market rallied pretty sharply today after inflation came in slightly lower than expected. The S&P ASX 200 jumped 0.9% to 8,789 points with 10 of the 11 sectors today finishing higher annual inflation actually accelerated from 3.5% in July to 4% in August. But that was just below expectations of 4.1% and the monthly increase slowed sharply to 0.4%. And that was enough to change the interest rate outlook in the eyes of some investors not all and we'll take a closer look at this tomorrow morning. But the rate sensitive stocks loved it today and real estate surged 3.7% led by Lend-Lease, which jumped more than 11% chart a haul, rose more than 6%, mervac nearly 5%, consumer

1:04discretionary stocks also rallied. In fact, the only sector to go backwards today was tech which actually outperformed well and truly yesterday. Among other companies, drone shield gained more than 5%, that's because it won a US Army contract with a value of up to $500 million US dollars. While northern star resources rose more than 6%, on reports that Goldfields could, Sweden, takeover offer. On to story number 2 now and Glencore and Yang Cole have received approval for a major expansion of their jointly owned Hunter Valley coal operations, extending mining for another two decades. The project allows the extraction of about 430 million additional tons of coal with operations continuing as late as 2045. The Hunter Valley mines currently produce around 42 million tons annually, supplying overseas power stations and steel makers. The approval follows a pretty lengthy six year process and comes with environmental conditions that include restrictions on where coal can be exported.

2:08The mines must also maximise their use of renewable energy. They also have to purchase additional carbon offsets, so there are a lot of conditions around this. Glencore operates the mines, and what, 49%. So just under half, ASX listed Yang Cole holds the remaining 51%. Story number 3, an update on the story we've talked a bit about over the last couple of months, a near miss at Sydney Airport has been classified as the most serious type of runway incursion on an international scale as investigators examine staffing pressures and fatigue risks. At the airport, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the ATSB, today released preliminary reports into six recent incidents at Sydney Airport, the most serious, which was on July 27, involved a Boeing 747 and a Dash 8, and was rated a category A runway incursion. It's only the third incident at that level in Australia since records began in 2003,

3:09so in more than two decades. The ATSB says air services Australia's own roster modelling predicted elevated fatigue risks for staff around the time of many of the incidents, but importantly, investigators have not determined that staffing or fatigue actually contributed to them. Air services says the incidents do not indicate an immediate safety risk to travellers. Story number 4, the Australian National University, the ANU in Canberra, has fallen to its worst ever position in one of the major global university rankings. As several Australian institutions lose ground, ANU dropped four places to 77th in the Times Higher Education World University rankings. While Adelaide Uni fell to 141st at UTS, number 152, University of Western Australia that slipped to 173, that's all the bad news. The picture at the top was a bit stronger. Melbourne University remains Australia's highest ranked institution.

4:10It actually climbed three places to equal 34th globally. Sydney Uni rose to equal 51st, Queensland University of Queensland, UNSW, they also improved. Times Higher Education says Australia's overall performance was dragged down by weaker research productivity and research strength while universities in Asia, particularly in China, continued to climb the global rankings. Finally, Story number 5, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham says Brexit has done, quote, more harm than good, signaling that he wants a closer relationship with the European Union. In his first Labour conference speech since he replaced Kia Stama as Prime Minister back in July, Burnham said Britain's current relationship with its biggest trading partner was not good enough. He plans to put options for a new relationship with the EU on the table at a summit later this year, although he did stop short of calling for Britain to rejoin the European Union, which would be quite extraordinary.

5:11Really, if it did go that far, Burnham also announced plans for a national care service. He promised more cost of living relief and said Britain would use its G20 presidency next year to push for a new global code regulating artificial intelligence. That's it for the afternoon report. For Wednesday, the 30th of September, make sure you're following the podcast and head along to fearinthgreet.com.au to sign up for our free daily newsletter on Michael Thompson. Enjoy your evening.