ASX starts higher as DigiCo Infrastructure REIT rockets
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More news: Australian shares lifted at the open, tracking gains on Wall Street overnight, amid broad gains across the market.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 21.7 points, or 0.24%, to 8,967.6 at 10:45am AEST. Nine of the 11 sectoral indices were in positive territory.
HMC Capital's DigiCo Infrastructure REIT jumped 17.2% after announcing plans to accelerate the expansion of its flagship SYD1 data centre following a string of new customer wins. HMC Capital was 5.8% higher.
Eagers Automotive climbed 6.8% after confirming that its $309 million retail entitlement offer will open this evening, having unveiled plans to expand into Canada earlier this week.
Gold stocks were among the worst performers, with Catalyst Metals (-2.6%) and Northern Star (-1.3%) losing ground.
Energy (-0.2%) was the worst performing sector as uranium miner Boss Energy (-1.9%) and coal producer Yancoal (-1.6%) slipped.
Australian shares set to open lower as big tech spurs Wall Street rally
The news: Australian shares are set to lower this morning after Wall Street's three main indices hit new record high closes, as megacaps Nvidia, Apple and Broadcom paced gains.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEST:
- ASX futures: down 32 points to 8,918
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.17%, S&P 500 up 0.06% and Nasdaq up 0.39%
- Europe: CAC 40 up 1.13%, DAX up 1.28% and FTSE 100 down 0.20%
- Spot gold: down 0.23% to USD3,856 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent down 1.65% at USD64.27/bbl and US WTI down 1.78% to USD60.68/bbl
- AUD: up 0.30% to 65.91 US cents
- Bitcoin: up 1.60% to USD120.528.
The context: The gains marked two closing highs in a row for the S&P 500 and the Dow, while the Nasdaq narrowly missed a record close on Wednesday.
The tech sector finished up 0.5% and was the biggest boost to the S&P 500. Broadcom (+1.4%), Nvidia (+0.9%) and Apple (+0.7%) were among the biggest gainers.
Investors shook of uncertainty caused by the federal government shutdown for the second consecutive session, while the Labor Department was forced to delay its September nonfarm payroll report.
