ASX breaks 5-day losing streak; PEXA soars

The news: The Australian sharemarket has broken its five-day losing streak as most sectors rallied following a mixed session on Wall Street.

The benchmark ASX 200 gained 0.78% to end at 8,314, with eight out of 11 sectors finishing in green.

Biggest movers:

• PEXA (8.2%) — Announced it had appointed Russell Cohen as its new managing director and chief executive.
• Data#3 (-9.84%) — Flagged that its full-year gross profit would be reduced by about 3% due to changes to Microsoft’s partner incentive program.
• Karoon Energy (-9.68%) — Lowered its 2024 guidance after a production shut-in at its Baúna project in Brazil last week.

Deals and funding news:

• Novonix (3.42%) — Received a conditional commitment from the US Department of Energy for a loan of up to USD754.8 million ($1.2 billion) for a new synthetic graphite manufacturing plant in Tennessee.
• Southern Cross Media (1.79%) — Has agreed to sell its regional Queensland, southern New South Wales and Victoria television licences to Network 10.
• GrainCorp (2.88%), Ampol (-0.84%) — The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is providing $6.1 million in funding to GrainCorp and $8 million to Ampol for sustainable aviation fuel projects.
• Insignia Financial (0.56%) — Tanarra Capital has rejected a media report that claimed the asset manager was supporting Bain Capital’s bid for Insignia Financial, calling it “categorically false”.
• Perpetual (-0.4%) — Flagged that the independent expert assessing the sale of some of its businesses to KKR is unable to back the deal due to a substantially higher tax bill for the transaction.