Australian shares start higher as Monadelphous, DroneShield pace gains
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More news: Australian shares lifted at the open as updates from Monadelphous, DroneShield and Iress took their shares higher.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 23.5 points, or 0.27%, to 8,793.2 at 10:45am AEDT. Six of the 11 sectoral indices were in positive territory.
Engineering company Monadelphous Group (+9%) was the top performer on the ASX 200 after forecasting a 43% leap in first-half revenue.
Counter-drone technology outfit DroneShield (+8.7%) also rallied after announcing new contracts with $7.6 million with the US government.
Financial software provider Iress (+6.4%) was among the best performers after unveiling a business efficiency program to "permanently increase margins".
Explosives group Dyno Nobel (+5.9%) climbed after reducing its full-year loss in FY25.
Australian shares to slip as investors eye end to US govt shutdown
The news: Australian shares are set to open lower after a week where Wall Street stocks fluctuated on fears of bloated valuations and uncertainty over the state of the US economy as the federal government shutdown continued to impede official data releases.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEDT:
- ASX futures: down 32 points to 8,718
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.16%, S&P 500 up 0.13% and Nasdaq down 0.21%
- Europe: CAC 40 down 0.18%, DAX down 0.69% and FTSE 100 down 0.55%
- Spot gold: up 0.60% to USD4,001 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent up 0.39% to USD63.63/bbl and US WTI up 0.54% to USD59.75/bbl
- AUD: up 0.20% at 64.96 US cents
- Bitcoin: up 2.66% to USD105,006.
The context: US stocks ended mixed on Friday, with the Dow and S&P 500 rising, and the Nasdaq 100 falling to complete its worst week since April.
Market watchers saw the exchange of proposals between Senate Republicans and Democrats as a signal that the federal government is getting closer to securing a deal to end the country's longest ever shutdown.
In the local market, Coles (Tuesday), Goodman Group (Tuesday), TPG Telecom (Tuesday), Domino's (Wednesday), NextDC (Thursday) and Lendlease (Friday) are among the companies holding annual general meetings this week.
