ASX closes lower as broad losses offset mining, energy gains
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The news: The Australian sharemarket finished lower as gains in the energy and mining sectors were offset by broad losses, including a fall in share price for some of Australia’s largest banks.
The benchmark ASX 200 fell 0.11% to end at 8570.4 as seven out of the 11 sectors finished in the red.
The energy sector (+0.5%) posted the biggest gain, driven by Woodside (+0.4%) and Santos (+0.5%) as well as uranium miners Deep Yellow (+4%), Paladin Energy (+2.9%) and Boss Energy (+2%). The materials sector also posted gains as BHP (+0.9%) and Rio Tinto (+0.6%) gained but Fortescue (-0.5%) fell.
Industrials (-0.6%) was the worst performing sectoral index as Brambles (-0.4%), Computershare (-3%), SGH (-0.8%) and Qantas (-0.9%) finished lower. Transurban (+0.1%) finished slightly higher.
Commonwealth Bank (-0.4%), Westpac (-0.7%) and ANZ (-0.8%) finished lower while NAB (+0.1%) finished higher.
Biggest movers:
- South32 (-5.1%) – Was the ASX 200’s biggest loser after the diversified miner told the exchange it is struggling to secure a new electricity supply agreement for its Mozal Aluminium smelter in Mozambique.
- Macquarie Technology Group (+9.6%) – The biggest gainer on the ASX 200 after announcing its subsidiary Macquarie Data Centres had entered a call and put option to secure land for a new data centre campus.
- Droneshield (+17%) – The anti-drone technology company will invest $13 million in a new Sydney production facility to expand its R&D and manufacturing capacity.
- Hansen Technologies (+10.9%) – Increased its underlying EBITDA guidance as well as its cash EBITDA guidance for financial year 2025.
- Gold miners – Ramelius Resources (+3.4%) led a rally among gold miners after the shareholders of takeover target Spartan Resources (+3.2%) voted overwhelmingly in favour of the deal on Friday and as the spot price of gold continues to soar amid US tariff pressure.
- Abacus Storage King (+1.8%) – The self-storage operator received an improved $2.2 billion takeover offer from South Africa’s Ki Corporation and US-listed Public Storage. The company rejected a previous bid by the joint suitors in May.
Other news:
- Scalare Partners – The tech investment and advisory firm has agreed to acquire tech-focused workspace and business service provider Tank Stream Labs for $5.5 million. The stock is in a trading halt.
- G8 Education (0%) – The early childhood and care provider responded to a letter from the ASX querying the company's disclosures in relation to a former employee charged with sexual assault offences involving children.
- City Chic Collective (-1.2%) – Unaudited figures released by the plus-size fashion retailer indicate a swing to positive earnings in financial year 2025 but a miss on its full-year guidance.
- Computershare (-3%) – Morgan Stanley analysts cut their rating on the share registry firm’s stock from ‘equal-weight’ to ‘under-weight’ and lowered their price target from $34.60 to $33.70.
What’s ahead:
- Westpac will release its monthly consumer sentiment report for July tomorrow at 10:30am.
- The National Bureau of Statistics of China will release data on gross domestic product data for the June quarter as well as industrial production and retail sales data for June tomorrow at 12:00pm.
