ASX closes higher despite energy sector drag
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The news: The Australian sharemarket finished higher, with gold miners among the strongest performers while energy stocks dragged.
It followed a volatile session on Wall Street, where early gains on the back of Nvidia's strong results were mostly lost after a US appeals court allowed President Donald Trump‘s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs to be temporarily reinstated, following a court ruling the previous day that declared the duties illegal.
The benchmark ASX 200 rose 0.3% to close at 8434.7, with seven of 11 sectors finishing in the green.
Biggest movers:
- Energy (-1.4%) – The worst performing sector after oil prices fell as OPEC+ looks poised to ramp up supply. Woodside (-2.1%), Santos (-0.9%) and Yancoal (-2.1%) shares were all down, but Ampol finished slightly higher (+0.7%).
- Gold miners – Among the best performing stocks as demand for the haven asset was driven by uncertainty surrounding the US global tariffs. Among the biggest gainers were West African Resources (+5.6%), Genesis Minerals (+4.4%), and Bellevue Gold(+4.2%).
- Ramsay Healthcare (+5.9%) – Was the top ASX 200 performer after announcing Transurban chair Craig Drummond will join its board from 1 July.
- Catapult (+11.2%) – Shares hit an all-time high before easing slightly, following Morgan Stanley’s decision to lift its price target by 35% a week after the sports technology company reported a sharp increase in full-year revenue.
Other news:
- Healthco (+7.9%) – HMC Capital's healthcare-focused real estate investment fund HealthCo and its Unlisted Healthcare Fund announced a rent deferral agreement to help Healthscope's hospital services keep running.
- Kelsian (+3.9%) – The travel group’s subsidiary Tower Transit Singapore has secured a $65 million bus services contract from Singapore's Sentosa Development Corporation.
- Paladin Energy (+1.6%) – Announced its company secretary Jeremy Ryan has resigned and will be replaced by chief legal officer Melanie Williams. The comes a day after the uranium miner acknowledged it could face a second shareholder class action.
- Lynas (+1.4%) – The rare earths producer signed a deal with the strategic investment arm of the Kelantan state government in Malaysian for a supply of mixed rare earths carbonate.
- NRW Holdings (+0.7%) – The construction company’s subsidiary Primero Group has landed a $157 million contract with mining giant Rio Tinto.
- Metrics Master Income Trust (0%) – Metrics Credit Partners' private debt fund completed a $315 million wholesale placement.
- Viva Energy (-0.5%) – The Victorian government has granted environmental approval for a proposed LNG import terminal in Geelong amid warnings of gas shortfalls within the next few years.
What’s ahead:
- Statistics Canada will release monthly GDP figures at 10:30pm.
- The US Bureau of Economic Analysis will release monthly data on the personal consumer expenditure price index at 10:30pm.
- The Chinese Federation of Logistics and Purchasing will release its monthly purchasing managers’ index data tomorrow at 11:30am.
- Eight members of OPEC+ will meet on Saturday to decide July oil production levels.
The source: undefined
