Australian shares end higher as Nickel Industries soars on Sphere Corp deal
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Australian shares ended marginally higher after the first trading day of the year. The benchmark ASX 200 index was up 13.5 points, or 0.16%, at 8,727.8. Six of the 11 sectoral indices finished in the green.
Energy (+0.7%) was the best performing sector, helped by uranium miners Boss Energy (+6.8%), Deep Yellow (+5.7%) and Paladin Energy (+5.6%).
Technology (-0.5%) led losses as Life360 (-3.2%) and Xero (-1.6%) dropped.
Biggest movers:
- Northern Star Resources (-8.6%) — downgraded its FY26 production guidance following a softer-than-expected December quarter.
- Nickel Industries (+7.8%) — announced that South Korea's Sphere Corp will acquire a 10% interest in its Excelsior Nickel Cobalt HPAL project.
Other news:
- Mesoblast (+1.8%) — confirmed changes to its board, with Philip Facchina named its new non-executive chair.
- 4DMedical (+15.5%) — appointed early investor Julian Sutton as CFO and executive director.
- Judo Capital (+4.4%) — said it is on track to achieve profit before tax of between $180 million to $190 million in FY26.
