ASX closes flat; NextDC lifts 8% as contract utilisation grows
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The news: The Australian sharemarket closed flat as tech sector gains (+3.3%) was offset by broad losses.
The benchmark ASX 200 index finished flat at 8,793.3, with five of the 11 sectoral indices in positive territory.
NextDC (+8.1%) announced its pro forma contract utilisation lifted 11% to 740 megawatts as at the end of 30 June 2026, but the data centre company has not made any changes to previous FY26 guidance.
Gold miners were among the biggest gainers on the ASX 200 as the spot price of the commodity lifted. Minerals 260 (+7.7%), Predictive Discovery (+6.5%), Evolution Mining (+5.6%) and Vault Minerals (+4.8%) lifted.
Hub24 (-4.2%) reported platform net inflows of $18.9 billion for FY26, up 20% year on year.
Telix Pharmaceuticals (+1.4%) reported a 21% year-on-year increase in group revenue to USD247 million ($352 million) for the second quarter, up from the USD204 million recorded in the prior corresponding period.
SiteMinder (+1.8%) appointed non-executive director Samantha Lawson as chief product officer, effective 1 August, succeeding Leah Rankin. Lawson has resigned from the board to assume the executive role.
ASX opens lower as mining stocks ease after prior session rally
More news: Australian shares opened lower as losses across mining and financial stocks offset gains in the tech sector, which had rallied following a chip rebound on Wall Street ahead of major tech earnings this week.
The benchmark ASX 200 was down by 44.3 points, or 0.50%, to 8,747 at 10:37am AEST. Eight of the 11 sectoral indices opened in the red.
Tech (+1.2%) was the strongest performing sector at the open, supported by a lift in NextDC (+2.8%) after reporting a pro forma contract utilisation increase of 11% to 740 megawatts.
Telix Pharmaceuticals (+1.2%) rose after posting a 21% jump in second-quarter revenue and tracked the top end of its full-year guidance.
South32 (+3.6%), Nickel Industries (+3.4%), Life360 (+2.4%) and Yancoal (+2.4%) were also among the best performing stocks at the open.
Elsewhere, mining (-0.5%) was the worst performing sector, retreating from previous sessions rally, weighed down by Rio Tinto (-1.2%), Fortescue (-1.2%), Bluescope Steel (-2%) and PLS (-2.3%).
Lovisa (-5.9%), Mesoblast (-5.2%), Alcoa (-4.4%) and Helia Group (-3.7%) were among the weakest performing stocks.
Australian shares to open lower as Wall St slips ahead of big tech earnings
The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open lower. Wall Street slipped overnight as investors weighed prospects for de-escalation in the Middle East ahead of earnings reports from major technology companies later this week.
The numbers: Updated at 7:45am AEST:
- ASX futures: down 36 points to 8,717 points
- Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.59%, S&P 500 down 0.19%, Nasdaq down 0.05%
- Europe: FTSE 100 down 0.71%, CAC 40 up 0.02%, DAX up 0.06%
- Spot gold: down 0.23% to USD4,007 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent up 0.96% to USD88.94/barrel, US WTI down 0.29% to USD82.24/bbl
- AUD: up 0.17% at 69.93 US cents
- Bitcoin: up 0.89% to USD65,255.
The context: All three major US indices closed lower on Monday. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 0.6%, recovering from Friday’s bear market, although the chip benchmark pared gains after climbing more than 3% earlier in the session.
Second-quarter earnings season gathers pace this week, with Alphabet, Tesla and Intel among the major companies due to report. The results will provide a broader gauge of corporate America’s health after a week dominated by financial sector earnings. Markets are expecting S&P 500 earnings growth of 26% year-on-year in the second quarter, up from an earlier estimate of 23.7%, according to LSEG.
Elsewhere, oil prices were volatile. Brent crude briefly topped USD90 ($128) a barrel after Iran-backed Yemeni group Houthi said they would impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, threatening the flow of millions of barrels of crude exported through the Red Sea. Prices later eased below USD89 after Iran said it had received ceasefire proposals from mediators aimed at securing a 10-day truce, signalling diplomatic efforts remain active, although it provided no further details.
