ASX ends flat as iron ore sell-off outweighs tech gains
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The news: The Australian sharemarket ended the day flat despite early tech gains, as iron ore miners weighed on the ASX.
The benchmark ASX 200 edged 0.08% higher to end at 8,257.4, with seven out of 11 sectors finishing in green.
Biggest movers:
- Insignia Financial (14.69%) — Received a takeover proposal from US private equity firm CC Capital Partners, valuing the company at $2.9 billion.
- Bellevue Gold (-13.97%) — Cut its full-year production guidance after lower output and sales in the December quarter.
Deals:
- Regis Healthcare (3.45%) — Agreed to acquire BodeWell Community Care, a move that will see its home care business double to around $30 million in revenue.
- Nine Entertainment (0.8%) — Shares jumped after reports that Tanarra Capital had taken a stake in the media company.
- DroneShield (-3.29%) — Received a $9.7 million order from a major Latin American military customer.
- SPC Global (-6.99%) — Struck a deal to supply dairy products to Hong Kong’s Dairy Farm Company which is expected to generate $250 million in revenue over 10 years.
Other news:
- Uranium miners — Paladin (5.47%), Boss Energy (5.75%) and Deep Yellow (5.88%) all extended gains from Friday after production at the Inkai uranium deposit in Kazakhstan was temporarily suspended.
- Nanosonics (1.34%) — Morningstar analysts flagged that its shares were undervalued and that its recent earnings headwinds were "largely temporary".
- Gold Road (0.96%) — Narrowly missed its annual production guidance despite delivering record production in the December quarter.
- Tech sector (0.8%) — Was the best performing sector as large tech stocks tracked Wall Street tech gains on Friday. WiseTech (1.32%), Xero (1.37%), and Technology One (0.23%) all rose.
- Iron ore miners — BHP (-1.96%), Fortescue (-1.96%) and Rio Tinto (-1.73%) all fell after iron ore prices fell below USD100 ($160.72) per tonne on Friday. Materials (-1.36%) was the worst performing sector.
The Australian dollar is buying 62.3 US cents.
What’s ahead: Tuesday will see the Australian Bureau of Statistics release the latest building approvals data while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will make a keynote speech at tech conference CES in Las Vegas.
