Australian shares open lower; Nine plummets as shares trade ex-dividend
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More news: Australian shares traded lower shortly after open with eight of the 11 sectoral indices taking losses. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 20 points, or 0.23%, to 8,810 at 10:33am AEST.
Nine Entertainment’s shares tanked 32% to $1.15 as they began trading ex-dividend. Perpetual (-3.8%) shares are also trading ex-dividend.
Healthcare was the worst performing sector having slipped 1.3%. CSL (-1.2%), Pro Medicus (-1.3%), and Resmed (-3%). Neuren Pharma (-7.1%), Clarity Pharmaceuticals (-1.4%) and Telix Pharma (-2.4%) also fell.
Gold miners were among the best performing as the spot price of the commodity ticked up further. Regis Resources (+5.2%), Evolution Mining (+4.6%) and Emerald Resources (3.6%) were among the biggest gainers.
Boss Energy (-2.5%) shares also fell after the uranium miner provided an update to the operational review of its flagship Honeymoon mine. News Corp (-2.78%) shares also fell as the company finalised the share settlements relating to litigation over the Murdoch Family Trust.
Australian shares to open lower after tech rally notched new S&P500 high
The news: Australian shares are set to tick down this morning after the S&P500 hit a new record close overnight, buoyed by an Oracle-led tech rally.
The numbers: Updated at 8:00am AEST:
- ASX futures: down 20 points to 8,805
- Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.48%, S&P 500 up 0.30% and Nasdaq up 0.03%
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.15%, DAX down 0.36% and FTSE 100 down 0.19%
- Spot gold: up 0.38% to USD3,640 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent up 1.78% USD67.57/bbl and US WTI up 1.66% to USD63.67/bbl
- AUD: up 0.37% to 66.13 US cents
- Bitcoin: up 2.17% to USD113,939.63.
The context: The S&P 500 reset its record close, buoyed by a tech stock rally after Oracle (+36%) surged after posting strong first quarter results for FY26 and forecast that booked revenue from its core cloud business would breach USD500 billion over the next few months.
The intraday surge meant Oracle co-founder and CTO Larry Ellison briefly surpassed Elon Musk as the world’s richest man, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Swedish fintech Klarna (+15%) also surged on its New York Stock Exchange debut.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones fell and the Nasdaq ended flat as investors considered producer price index data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) overnight.
The inflation measure ticked down 0.1% in August on a month-to-month basis, after surging in July, but was up 2.6% compared to 12 months prior.
US consumer price index data inflation data to be released on Thursday evening (AEST) will further inform investor expectations ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision next week.
