ASX opens higher lifted by staples; Tabcorp and Helia surge
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More news: Australian shares opened higher, lifted by gains across the consumer staples and tech sectors.
The benchmark ASX 200 was up by 82.7 points, or 0.92%, to 9,105 at 10:39am AEDT. Seven of the 11 sectoral indices opened in the green.
Consumer Staples (+4.27%) was the best performing sector, led by Woolworths (+6.75%), which rallied despite reporting a 49.4% profit drop in the first half driven by class action payouts.
Tabcorp (+17.94%) and Iress (+13.14%) jumped despite reporting a lower year-on-year profit, while Helia (+13.94%) rose on stronger-than-expected full-year earnings.
Elsewhere, telecommunications (+1.25%) was the worst performing sector, led by a fall in Telstra (-2.67%), Ooh Media (-4.66%), Ive Group (-5.05%) and Fortifai (-2.08%).
Domino’s Pizza (-10.10%) slumped and was the worst performing stock across the ASX 200 despite swinging to a first-half profit and reaffirming its FY26 guidance.
Australian shares to open higher after Wall St rebounds on easing AI concerns
The news: Australian shares are set to open higher after Wall Street rebounded on Tuesday from one of its worst sessions in months as renewed enthusiasm for artificial intelligence offset concerns about potential disruption from the emerging technology.
The numbers: Updated at 7:39am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 64 points to 9,047.
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.79%, S&P 500 up 0.67% and the Nasdaq up 0.96%.
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.26%, DAX down 0.02% and FTSE 100 down 0.04%.
- Spot gold: down 1.07% to USD5,171 per ounce.
- Oil prices: Brent down 0.08% to USD71.43/bbl and US WTI down 0.06% to USD66.26/bbl.
- AUD: up 0.12% at 70.64 US cents.
- Bitcoin: down 0.19% to USD64,490.
The context: All three US major indices traded higher overnight, led by gains in semiconductor stocks, as speculation around the potential impact of AI continued to drive sharp moves across a wide range of sectors.
Industries including commercial real estate, trucking and logistics have recently seen steep declines amid concerns that advances in AI could cause disruptions to traditional business models.
Artificial intelligence developer Anthropic announced a suite of new plug-ins targeting areas such as investment banking and human resources, weeks after earlier releases triggered a sell-off in traditional software stocks. The 10 new plug-ins, unveiled at a livestreamed event on Tuesday, were developed in partnership with FactSet, LSEG, Salesforce’s Slack and DocuSign.
The US Federal Reserve also weighed in on AI’s potential impact on the labour force. Governor Lisa Cook said the technology could lead to a rise in unemployment, while Governor Christopher Waller said he does not expect AI to materially disrupt the labour market.
Elsewhere, Donald Trump’s new 10% global tariffs took effect on Tuesday, marking an effort by the White House to preserve the administration’s trade agenda after the US Supreme Court struck down earlier sweeping duties. The White House is working on a formal order to lift the global tariff rate to 15%, according to the administration.
Elsewhere, IRESS, Helia Group, Light & Wonder, Domino’s Pizza, Fortescue, WiseTech Global, Woolworths and Centuria Capital are among companies scheduled to report earnings today.
