Advisory firm Deloitte reported last week that, despite mixed commodity price movements, the market capitalisation of Western Australian-listed companies comprising the Deloitte WA Index had continued its strong start to 2013, rising 2.1% during the month of February to close at A$156.6-billion.

The firm noted that global financial markets also continued to strengthen for the better part of February, with sentiment supported by the temporary resolution of the fiscal situation in the US, approval of the revised Greek bail-out package in December, policy developments in Japan and better-than-expected global economic data.

“A marked decline in overall market volatil- ity, driven by a belief that the worst of the eurozone debt crisis may have passed, combined with renewed growth in the US, boosted shareholders’ confidence, with investors shifting away from more conservative strategies. “However, towards the end of the month, concerns surrounding Italy’s financial health raised their head again,” said Deloitte lead audit partner Tim Richards.

He added that the return to equity markets by investors looking for higher yields, as opposed to safer, lower-yielding assets, such as government bonds and gold bullion, mirrored an improvement in business sentiment across Australia.

The latest Deloitte CFO Survey indicated that one-third of CFOs were more optimistic than in the third quarter of 2012. However, nearly half of the respondents expected economic uncertainty to continue.

“The biggest source of uncertainty continues to be focused on government policy uncertainty and the high Australian dollar, which is affecting the confidence of CFOs within Western Australia and the rest of the country,” said Richards.

Meanwhile, February saw a decrease across the majority of commodity prices surveyed, Deloitte noted, with industrial metals among the poorest performers.

Nickel prices experienced the biggest decline, falling 10% as the outlook for nickel prices continued to be uncertain. Copper and aluminium fell by 4% and 6% respectively, reflecting the continued manufacturing slow-down in China, with the latest indicators from China pointing to a slowing expansion in the manufacturing sector.

Meanwhile, oil prices fell by 5% during the month, as a result of two forces: a reduction in demand from Europe, coupled with high speculation around the possibility that the US Federal Reserve stimulus campaign could have a negative impact on economic growth.

Richards noted that the movers and shakers for February included Range Resources, Iron Ore Holdings (IOH) and Central Petroleum, with increases in market capitalisation of 49%, 42.3% and 36.2% respec-tively.

Range increased its market capitalisation by A$60-million to A$183-million in February, driven by an agreement reached by Range and its partners with Georgian Industrial Group, the largest industrial holding company in Georgia, to jointly develop the coal seam gas and conventional gas potential around the Tkibuli-Shaori coalfield.

Combined with positive updates in relation to operations in Trinidad and Guatemala, this resulted in an increase in the company’s share price by 49% during the month.

IOH’s market capitalisation rose by A$57-million to A$193-million, an increase of 42.3% following a successful agreement with Mineral Resources Limited (MRL).

This agreement was expected to result in the early development of the company’s Iron Valley project and the mine gate sale to MRL of ore extracted from that mine. The term of the agreement is to be the lesser of 20 years or 200-million tons of product bought by MRL.

Despite the fall in oil prices during the month, the share price of Central Petroleum increased by 36.2%, driving the company’s market capitalisation up by A$63-million to close the month at A$236-million.

The company’s results for the December 2012 quarter, released in February, showed a strong performance and solid cash position. During February, a technical analysis com-pleted by the company revealed an additional zone within the company’s 100%-owned Sur-prise oilfield that had a high-reward potential and would warrant enhanced exploration efforts.