ASX lifts; Iress gains, Star tumbles

The news: The Australian sharemarket rose, tracking gains on Wall Street, ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as the next US president.

The benchmark ASX 200 gained 0.45% to end at 8,347.4, with nine out of 11 sectors finishing in green.

Biggest movers:

• Iress (6.17%) — Agreed to divest its superannuation business to Apex Group following a strategic review.
• The Star Entertainment (-17.86%) — Flagged a 15% drop in quarterly revenue and warned of "material uncertainty” over the group’s ability to continue.
• Karoon Energy (-5.69%) — Announced that its part-owned Who Dat West exploration well will be permanently abandoned.

Other news:

• IGO (2.63%) — Flagged a substantial pre-tax impairment against the carrying value of the Kwinana lithium hydroxide refinery in its forthcoming half-year results.
• Ventia (1.63%) — Agreed to divest its contract for the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing in Queensland to a joint venture between Acciona and Ferrovial.
• Iron ore companies — Rio Tinto (1.14%), BlueScope Steel (1.48%), Rio Tinto (1.14%), BHP (0.47%) — Rallied after better-than-expected economic data in China, even as key ports in Western Australia were closed because of a cyclone warning in the state's iron ore rich Pilbara region.
• Pexa (1.08%) — Morgans upgraded its rating on the online property settlements company to ‘add’ from ‘hold’.
• South32 (0.86%) — Flagged that production lifted for most of its commodities in the second quarter but noted higher operating costs for the first half.
• MA Financial Group (0.81%) — Secured $171 million in cornerstone commitments for its first listed investment trust, MA Credit Income Trust.
• Insignia Financial (ended flat) — Has offered to provide due diligence to US private equity firm CC Capital following its latest takeover offer.
• Ampol (-0.44%) — Appointed former McDonald's executive Helen Nash and former Fortescue chief financial officer Stephen Pearce as non-executive directors on its board.
• Lynas Rare Earths (-1.85%) — Bell Potter analysts lowered its target price on the stock and slashed its earnings-per-share forecasts following lower-than-expected production in December.
• Gold miners — Vault Minerals (-4.05%), Northern Star (-2.64%), De Grey Mining (-2.49%) and Bellevue Gold (-2.23%) were all part of the 10 worst performing stocks after spot gold edged lower on a possible technical correction.