ASX closes higher; CBA, ANZ lift

Commonwealth Bank (+0.5%), Westpac (+1.4%) and ANZ (+2.5%) all finished higher, partially reversing two days of steep losses. This drove the finance sector (+0.8%) higher. NAB (-0.1%) finished slightly lower.

Biggest movers:

• Whitehaven Coal (+6.5%) – The biggest mover on the ASX 200 despite no company specific news.
• Mesoblast (+4.8%) – Returned to the share price level reached last Friday after the biotech announced unaudited gross revenue of around $20.3 million in sales of its recently launched flagship cell therapy Ryoncil.
• Ramelius Resources (+4.5%) – The scheme to acquire rival gold miner Spartan Resources took legal effect yesterday. Spartan has been suspended from quotation.
• Iluka Resources (+4.1%) – First-half production volumes increased by 22.7% but the mineral sands miner did not provide third-quarter guidance for zircon prices or sales due to ongoing tariff uncertainties.
• Telix Pharmaceuticals (-15.1%) – Subject to a regulatory inquiry from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Paladin Energy (-11.3%) – Reported a 33% jump in quarterly production and set a FY26 targets from production and sales.

Deals news:

• IperionX (+4%) – Received firm commitments for a share placement worth $70 million.
• MAC Cooper (+1%) – Shareholders will vote on a proposed $1.6 billion cash takeover by New Jersey-based Harmony Gold on 29 August.
• Scentre (+0.8%) – Sold a 25% interest in Westfield Chermside in northern Brisbane to Dexus Wholesale Shopping Centre Fund for $683 million.
• PointsBet (0%) – Rejected an all-scrip takeover bid from rival online bookmaker Betr (-1.7%) and urged its shareholders to accept an off-market offer by Japanese entertainment group MIXI.

Resources news:

• Vulcan Energy (+3.7%) – Received approval for two grants worth about €104 million ($186 million) from German governments to support ambitions to build industrial-scale lithium production and processing.
• Karoon Energy (+1.6%) – Chief executive and managing director Julian Fowles will vacate the top jobs by the end of the year and leave the company in mid-2026 after serving out a notice period.
• Woodside (+1.5%) – Reported a 1% fall in revenue in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter, even as production improved by 2%.
• Westgold Resources (+0.4%) – Delivered a production record and treasury build record for the fourth quarter of financial year 2025.

Other news:

• Ampol (+3.3%) – Reported unaudited first-half earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation that were lower than the previous year. Ampol also flagged earnings growth in its convenience retail and New Zealand segments.
• IAG (+3.2%) – UBS analysts upgraded their position on the stock from ‘neutral’ to ‘buy’ and lifted the 12-month price target from $9.30 to $9.50.
• Viva Energy (+2.2%) – Macquarie analysts lifted their 12-month target price on the stock by 18% to $2 a share. They retained a ‘neutral’ rating on the stock.
• Generation Development Group (-0.7%) – Reported net inflows of $1.5 billion in the June quarter, 72% higher than the prior corresponding period.

What’s ahead:

• The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release its last set of weekly payroll job indexes before transitioning to a new monthly Employee Jobs measure tomorrow at 11:30am.
• The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will release its quarterly bulletin tomorrow at 11:30am.
• RBA governor Michele Bullock will speak at the annual Anika Foundation fundraising lunch, organised by the Australian Business Economists, tomorrow at 1:05pm.