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The local market took no lead from Wall Street’s overnight sell-off, as the ASX closed Tuesday’s session 0.41% higher, led by a rally for materials stocks, which boosted the key index to a positive close.

Oil and gas giant Santos (ASX:STO) today announced it received a binding conditional offer from Papua New Guinea’s national oil and gas company, Kumul Petroleum to acquire an additional 5% project interest in PNG LNG for asset value of US$1.4 billion, including a proportionate share of project finance debt of approximately US$0.3 billion. Should the deal be approved, Kumul Petroleum will own 22% of PNG LNG while Santos’ shareholding will drop to 37.5%. Shares in Santos (ASX:STO) rose 1% today.

MetalsGrove Mining (ASX:MGA) skyrocketed 61% today after announcing significant lithium pegmatite potential has been identified at the company’s Upper Coondina Lithium Project in Western Australia during pre-drilling surface mapping at the site.

A rally for coal miners today was due to ongoing concerns of a European energy crisis as the continent faces a shortage of gas and coal following Russia’s energy commodity withdrawals and rationing since earlier this year. Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) and New Hope Corporation (ASX:NHC) each added over 6% today.

Taking a look at the best performing stocks today, BrainChip (ASX:BRN) jumped 7.23%, Megaport (ASX:MP1) added almost 7% and Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) shared climbed just over 6%. And the stock hit the hardest by investors selling out today was Core Lithium (ASX:CXO), which fell more than 5.5% despite the company releasing a business and drilling update today including the Finniss operations uncovering first spodumene Ore in September and the BP33 exploration having high-grade spodumene bearing pegmatite intersected in multiple holes. Fisher and Paykel Healthcare (ASX:FPH) also lost almost 5% today while Ramsay Healthcare (ASX:RHC) fell 3.5%.

The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients today were Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC), New Energy Solar (ASX:NEW) and the BetaShares US Equities Strong Bear Hedge Fund (ASX:BBUS).

Taking a look at economic data, US durable goods orders data for the month of August is out tonight, with the market expecting a decline of 0.4% after a decline in orders for transport equipment weighed down US durable goods orders in July.

US new home sales for August data is also out at midnight tonight, giving an insight into the current condition of the property market in the US amid the Fed’s aggressive interest rate hike strategy to curb the country’s inflation.