Australian shares reverse gains as utilities slide
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More news: Australian shares swung into the red in afternoon trading, erasing earlier gains, as utilities stocks led losses.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 6.5 points, or 0.08%, to 8,541.9 at 1pm AEST. Six of the 11 sectoral indices were in the red.
The market's five largest utilities stocks — Origin Energy (-0.8%), APA Group (-0.6%), Mercury NZ (-1.4%), AGL Energy (-0.3%) and Meridian Energy (-1.1%) — were all trading lower as the sector fell 0.7%.
Regis Resources (-2.3%) was also one of the worst performing ASX 200 stocks after UBS downgraded its rating on the gold miner to 'sell'.
Among the best performers were uranium miners Deep Yellow (8.9%), Boss Energy (6.2%) and Paladin Energy (5.5%), following an investment raise announcement from the world’s largest physical uranium fund on Monday.
Meanwhile, Clarity Pharmaceuticals (4.5%) gained after securing a new commercial manufacturing agreement for the production of its radiopharmaceutical Cu-SAR-bisPSMA.
Data centre investor DigiCo Infrastructure REIT (3.8%) also rallied after confirming that it will pay a distribution of 10.9 cents for the 2025 financial year.
Australian shares rise as energy stocks slide
More news: Australian shares edged higher in early trading as mining and technology stocks led gains and energy companies led losses after rallying on Monday.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 10.2 points, or 0.12%, to 8,558.6 at 11am AEST. Seven of the 11 sectoral indices were in the green.
Miners made up most of the best performing ASX 200 stocks. Lithium miners Pilbara Minerals (5.3%) and Liontown Resources (4.5%) both advanced, as did gold producers Bellevue Gold (4.6%) and Newmont (3.4%).
Uranium miners extended recent gains, with Deep Yellow (4.5%), Boss Energy (3.9%) and Paladin Energy (2.9%) all trading higher.
Meanwhile, energy stocks trimmed a 5.2% jump from Monday, lowering 0.8%, as oil companies Woodside Energy (-1.1%), Santos (-0.4%), Ampol (-0.9%) and Karoon Energy (-3.2%) tracked falling crude prices overnight.
Australian shares to lift on Israel-Iran ceasefire hopes
The news: Australian shares are poised to open marginally higher after US and European stocks climbed overnight, as further attacks between Israel and Iran failed to hit key crude production sites and on growing hopes for a ceasefire.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEST:
- ASX futures: up 5 points, or 0.05%, to 8,565
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.75%, S&P 500 up 0.94%, and Nasdaq up 1.52%
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.75%, DAX up 0.78%, and FTSE 100 up 0.28%
- Spot gold: down 1.37% to USD3,385 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent down 0.25% to USD73.05/bbl, and US WTI down 2.06% to USD71.48/bbl
- AUD: up 0.5% to 65.18 US cents
- Bitcoin: down 0.17% to USD108,646.
The context: US and European stocks closed higher and oil prices lowered overnight after escalating conflict between Israel and Iran failed to impact crude production and export facilities.
Oil prices jumped 14% on Friday after Israel opened attacks on Iran. Overnight, crude prices slipped over 1% as investor concerns over higher energy prices eased.
There were also increased hopes for a truce after Iran reportedly asked Gulf states to press US President Donald Trump to intervene and push for a ceasefire in return for nuclear concessions.
The source: Reuters
