ASX opens higher as miners surge; Insignia jumps 14% on $3.3b buyout
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
More news: Australian shares edged higher at the open, tracking gains on Wall Street overnight, as miners led early gains.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 20.8 points, or 0.24%, to 8,689 at 10:30am AEST. Six of the 11 sectoral indices were in the green.
Insignia Financial was the best performing ASX 200 company, soaring 14% after agreeing to a $3.3 billion takeover by US private equity group CC Capital.
Miners led sectoral gains, adding 2.2% as iron ore giants BHP (2.1%), Fortescue (1.7%) and Rio Tinto (1.5%) advanced. Gold miners Genesis Minerals (5.7%), West African Resources (5.4%), Ramelius Resources (4.5%) and Capricorn Metals (4.2%) were also among the best performers.
Capricorn reported this morning a 13% increase to the mineral reserve estimate at its Mount Gibson gold project. Ramelius and Spartan Resources (3.8%) were both higher as the pair close in on their merger, with Spartan's shares set to be suspended from close of trading today.
Australian shares to lift as big tech pushes US stocks higher
The news: Australian shares are poised rise at the open after tech megacaps led the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to fresh record highs ahead of a slate of earnings results later this week.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEST:
- ASX futures: up 12 points, or 0.13%, to 8,660 points
- Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.04%, S&P 500 up 0.14%, and Nasdaq up 0.38%
- Europe: CAC 40 down 0.31%, DAX up 0.08%, and FTSE 100 up 0.23%
- Spot gold: up 1.41% to USD3,397 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent down 0.26% to USD69.01/bbl, and US WTI down 0.40% to USD67.07/bbl
- AUD: up 0.19% to 65.24 US cents
- Bitcoin: down 0.20% to USD117,221.
The context: Google parent Alphabet (2.7%), Amazon (1.4%) and Meta (1.2%) all advanced ahead of the first big tech earnings results on Wednesday.
Investors also kept watch on Washington, as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called for an inquiry into “the entire Federal Reserve institution”, while a Republican representative referred Fed chair Jerome Powell for a criminal investigation.
In local news, the Reserve Bank of Australia is due to release the minutes from its July meeting at 11:30am.
