S&P/ASX 200 rises 1% following overnight rebound on Wall Street

S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) was trading up 0.78% to 5862 at 12.50 pm, chasing Wall Street's overnight gains. However, today’s gains are unlikely to overcome a weekly fall with the benchmark index still down 1.1% over the past five days. Today’s improvements have been broad-based, but the financial and the material sectors are the major standouts with the big four banks all lifting at least 2%. BHP Group Ltd (ASX:BHP) is up 2.17% and Westpac (ASX:WBC) surged 3%. Qantas (ASX:QAN) shares have dropped more than 7.5% after it resumed trading following the completion of its $1.36 billion institutional raising. COVID-19 update Victoria announced 30 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, slightly down on the 33 new cases reported yesterday. More than 9.5 million COVID-19 cases have been recorded globally since the pandemic started. The virus which had brought the global economy to a grinding halt has not receded and fresh waves of new infections threaten the reopening plans across several cities of US. Top gainers Today’s top gainers on the ASX Include Cardiex Ltd (ASX:CDX) (+10.00%), Platina Resources Limited (ASX:PGM) (+16.13%), Latin Resources Ltd (ASX:LRS) (+16.67%), Archtis Ltd (ASX:AR9) (+10.53%) and Aspire Mining Ltd (ASX:AKM) (+29.41%). Proactive news headlines: Aeris Resources completes retail shortfall bookbuild as part of $40 million capital raising Aeris Resources Ltd (ASX:AIS) has completed the retail shortfall bookbuild which followed institutional and retail components of the accelerated renounceable entitlement offer. Completion of this component together with the institutional placement and amounts already raised under the entitlement offer represent a total raising of around A$40 million. Arafura Resources Native Title Agreement paves way for final mining approval at Nolans Arafura Resources Ltd (ASX:ARU) has executed a Native Title Agreement for Nolans Neodymium-Praseodymium (NdPr) Project in the Northern Territory with the native title holders and Central Land Council (CLC). This follows a meeting in late February 2020 attended by the native title holders, senior staff of the CLC and representatives of Arafura Rare Earths Pty Ltd (ARE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arafura. Tempus Resources completes second tranche of $4 million capital raising Tempus Resources Ltd (ASX:TMR) (FRA:4W0) has completed the second tranche of the A$4 million capital raising announced on May 4, 2020, with funds to support the company's gold exploration efforts in Ecuador and British Columbia, Canada. Macarthur Minerals lodges haul road and rail-siding applications supporting potential early revenue DSO operation Macarthur Minerals Ltd (ASX:MIO) (CVE:MMS) (OTCMKTS:MMSDF) is examining early revenue opportunities for Lake Giles Iron Project in Western Australia and has lodged applications to develop a 93-kilometre haul road to a proposed rail siding adjacent to the Perth-Kalgoorlie rail line. The proposed road and siding would provide the opportunity for the transport of iron ore from the project in the state's Yilgarn region by rail to Esperance Port or the Port of Kwinana as well as support potential for early revenue direct shipping ore (DSO) mining. Element 25 drilling to confirm process water supply at Butcherbird Manganese Project Element 25 Ltd (ASX:E25) has begun a water bore drilling program at its 100%-owned Butcherbird Manganese Project in WA aimed at confirming process water supply. Two production bores will be completed enabling pump tests to be conducted to confirm the potential of the selected area to provide sufficient process water for the project's beneficiation plant.