Australian shares start higher as MinRes soars on $1.2b lithium deal
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
More news: Australian shares opened higher as gains by mining and energy companies offset a 2.5% selloff in tech stocks.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 16.6 points, or 0.19%, to 8,835.4 at 10:30am AEDT. Seven of the 11 sectoral indices were higher.
Mineral Resources (+8.2%) was the top performer on the ASX 200 after selling a 30% stake in its lithium operations to South Korea-based POSCO in a $1.2 billion deal.
Fellow lithium producer Liontown Resources (+4%) also climbed after partnering with German software provider Metalshub to digitalise spot sales of spodumene concentrate from its Kathleen Valley mine.
Elsewhere, network-as-a-service provider Megaport added 4.6% after completing a $200 million equity raise to help fund its acquisition of Latitude.sh. Travel agency Flight Centre (+4.4%) and data centre investor DigiCo (+3.8%) gained following positive trading updates this morning.
Meanwhile, tech stocks dived as app developer Life360 (-11.8%) continued its selloff from Tuesday, sparked by the announcement of its $184 million acquisition of advertising technology outfit Nativo.
Gambling company Aristocrat and poultry producer Inghams both lost around 4% after disappointing trading updates.
Australian shares to rise as Dow, S&P 500 climb on shutdown truce
The news: Australian shares are poised to lift at the open after a mixed session on Wall Street, where megacap Nvidia led AI-related stocks lower and investors monitored progress toward ending the US government shutdown.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 15 points, or 0.17%, to 8,841
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 1.25%, S&P 500 up 0.29% and Nasdaq down 0.14%
- Europe: CAC 40 up 1.25%, DAX up 0.53% and FTSE 100 up 1.15%
- Spot gold: up 0.30% to USD4,128 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent up 1.69% to USD65.14/bbl and US WTI up 1.50% to USD61.04/bbl
- AUD: down 0.07% at 65.33 US cents
- Bitcoin: down 2.72% to USD103,094.
The context: The Dow and S&P 500 rose after the US Senate passed a temporary funding measure to end the record-breaking, 42-day government shutdown. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the bill on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT).
However, Nvidia (-2.5%) led the tech-heavy Nasdaq lower, after Japanese investor SoftBank sold its entire USD5.8 billion stake in the chip maker.
Elsewhere, Paramount Skydance shares were 9.1% higher after the media and entertainment group raised its 2026 cost-cutting target to USD3 billion.
In the local market, Netwealth, Flight Centre, Beach Energy and Domino's all have their annual general meetings today.
