Live ASX News Today
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19th Mar 06:05 PM AEDT
Australia, on Friday, named Margaret Cole as the head of the PwC’s global regulatory policy as a full-time member of the country’s banking regulator. Here, she will be overseeing activities at Australia’s A$3 trillion pension industry.
Cole was a senior executive at the British Financial Services Authority during the 2008 global financial crisis and will join the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) on July 1 for five years.
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19th Mar 06:03 PM AEDT
On Friday, the benchmark index ASX 200 settled at 6708.20 points after dropping 37.70 points, which declined by 0.56% as compared to the previous day. The nergy sector lost the maximum today, followed by industrials, materials and others. Utilities remained the best performing sector.
On Thursday, all major indices in the US stock market ended in the red zone. Tech stocks remained vulnerable and declined the most. The Nasdaq Composite lost 409 points and dived by 3.02 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 153 points and dipped by 0.46 per cent. S&P 500 declined by 1.48%
At AEDT 4:23 PM, crude oil traded at USD 60.09%, a 0.18 per cent uptick. Gold traded at USD 1731.39, a 0.31 per cent downturn. Bitcoin traded at USD 57,897.0, a decline of 1.66%, and AUD/USD traded flat at USD 0.7745.
To know more on today's trading, read here: How did ASX200 trade today, post a bearish US market close?
See the graph for today's best and worst performing stocks.
Data Source: ASX website
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19th Mar 06:01 PM AEDT
The shares of Security Matters Limited (ASX:SMX) rose as much as 13.2% to A$0.385.
The Company has joined a new alliance called the Circular Electronics Partnership (CEP), focusing on electronic waste.
Other members of the coalition feature Dell Technologies, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Google.
Meanwhile, the stock ended the week’s session at A$0.380 per share, 11.764% higher.
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19th Mar 05:51 PM AEDT
The mining giants on the ASX, with an exposure to iron ore, posted their third straight weekly loss and were set for steep falls for the month.
Global miner Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) down over 1% for the week, has fallen around 14% since March.
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX:FMG), the world’s fourth-largest iron ore miner, has shed around 12% in the last three weeks.
BHP Group Limited (ASX:BHP) has fallen around 2% during the week, down 10% in the month.
Also, Chinese iron ore and coke futures on the Dalian Community Exchange slumped on Friday.
Prices of the raw material have been hurt by Tangshan anti-pollution curbs, as the city has pledged to cut emissions by 50%.
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19th Mar 04:53 PM AEDT
Share price of the Company Palla Pharma Limited (ASX:PAL) rose as much as 3% to A$0.515, its highest since 12 March 2021.
The opiate manufacturer has grabbed its first order for Palla Paharma 30/500 Co-Codamol Caplet Marketing Authorisation product.
Approximately 329,000 shares were traded.
The stock is down 35.1% this year, as of the last close.
On Friday, the stock ended at A$0.500 per share.
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19th Mar 03:55 PM AEDT
The share price of New World Resources Limited (ASX:NWC) rose as much as 15.3% to A$0.083 per share, its highest since 30 May 2018.
The Company shared that it has identified high-grade deposits from nine drill holes at the Antler copper project in Arizona in the US.
Over 21.3 million shares were traded as compared to the 30-day average volume of 8.2 million shares.
Meanwhile, the stock has risen 28.6% so far this year and was trading at A$0.080, up 11.111% at 3:21 PM AEDT.
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19th Mar 03:31 PM AEDT
The shares of uranium and gold exporter Reedy Lagoon Corporation (ASX:RLC) rose as much as 20% to A$0.030, its highest since 12 February 2021.
The Company stated that pig iron production in Western Australia has received additional support from a study undertaken by mining consulting series provider Dinsdale consultants.
Dinsdale confirmed that the Company could produce high purity pig iron using HIsmelt technology with net-zero carbon dioxide emissions.
While the stock is up approximately 66.7% this year, it traded 7.999% higher at A$0.027 a share at 2:48 PM AEDT.
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19th Mar 03:14 PM AEDT
Spacetalk Ltd (ASX:SPA) announced that Telstra Corporation Limited (ASX:TLS) would start selling Spacetalk Adventurer devices across all Telstra retail stores and online platforms in Australia, with a target launch in April 2021.
Backed by the same, the SPA stock skyrocketed and gained up to 70% on the Index. Also, TLS shares were spotted trading higher.
Telstra is Australia’s largest mobile network operator with a market-leading 19 million retail mobile services, the most significant footprint of company-branded bricks and mortar retail stores in Australia, and a robust online retail presence.
Spacetalk Adventurer will be placed on Telstra’s core wearables device range after completing the final stages of exhaustive device testing and certification with Telstra.
Meanwhile, the stocks SPA and TLS were quoted at A$0.162, up 47.727% and A$3.200, up 0.313% at around 2:51 PM AEDT.
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19th Mar 02:50 PM AEDT
CIMIC Group Limited’s (ASX:CIM) minerals processing company, Sedgman, and construction company CPB Contractors have further extended their presence in Queensland with the award of contracts totalling approximately $100 million in revenue.
The ASX 200-lister’s Sedgman branch secured a contract from Qcoal to model and build a tailings dewatering facility at the Byerwen Mine in Central Queensland. Simultaneously, CPB Contractors grabbed a Queensland government contract to start stage two of the Yarrabilba State Secondary College project.
Meanwhile, the stock CIM was seen trading at A$18.200 per share, down 2.098%, with a market cap of A$5.78 billion at 2:30 PM AEDT.
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19th Mar 02:11 PM AEDT
IDT Australia Limited's share price (ASX:IDT) gained as much as 94.6% to A$0.360, hitting its highest since 26 April 26, 2016.
The Company shared that it is undertaking a feasibility assessment to explore the likelihood of utilising its sterile manufacturing facility to produce COVID-19 vaccines at the Australian health department's request.
The stock has posted its biggest intraday percentage gain since 28 April 1989.
Over 12.1 million shares were traded as compared to the 30-day average volume of approximately 189,000 shares.
On Friday, at 1:48 PM AEDT, the stock was trading at A$0.320 per share, up 72.972%, with a market cap of A$44.44 million.
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19th Mar 02:00 PM AEDT
Comet Resources Limited (ASX:CRL) climbed as much as 16.7% to A$0.028, the highest since 25 February.
The Company shared it has acquired a highly prospective copper-gold project in Northern Territory from Bath Resources Pty Ltd.
Around 18.2 million shares were traded as compared to the 30-day average volume of 11.7 million shares.
While CRL has gained 20% this year, as of the last close, it traded at A$0.025 per share on Friday, 4.166% higher at 1:18 PM AEDT.
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19th Mar 01:43 PM AEDT
Medibio Ltd (ASX:MEB) shares climbed as much as 33.3% to A$0.012 a share, its biggest intraday percentage gai since 12 November 2020.
The Company has entered an agreement with UK-based food services provider Compass Group Plc CPG.L to start implementation Ilumen in the UK.
Ilumen is a mental health software that provides aggregated data to measure and manage mental wellbeing.
Approximately 66.8 million shares were traded as compared to the 30-day average volume of 5.9 million shares.
While the stock has gained 12.5% this year, so far, it was trading 11.111% higher at $0.010 at 1:30 PM AEDT.
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19th Mar 01:18 PM AEDT
AGL Energy Limited (ASX:AGL) rose as much as 1.9% to A$9.620 per share as the Sydney-based firm announced that it has finalised a new agreement to supply a part of the electricity requirement of Alcoa aluminium smelter in Portland, Victoria, until July 20216.
The Company stated that the agreement would come into effect from August 1.
Though AGL is down 20.2% this year, as of the last close, it traded up 1.641% at A$9.595 per share at 12:54 PM AEDT.
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19th Mar 12:38 PM AEDT
The S&P/ASX 200 Energy (AXEJ) sank as much as 3.5%, marking its biggest intraday percentage loss since 19 February 2021.
XEJ has declined as increasing COVID-19 cases in Europe and a strengthening US dollar drag crude oil prices fall overnight.
Sector giants – Santos Limited (ASX:STO) dropped 2.456%, Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX:WPL) dropped up to 4.1%.
Fuel retailer Ampol Ltd (ASX:ALD) was the top loser on the AXEJ.
However, the subindex has gained 4.8%, as of the last close, as compared to the 2.4% rise in the benchmark.
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19th Mar 12:20 PM AEDT
iCandy Interactive Limited (ASC:ICI) jumped as much as 8.70%, to A$0.125, its highest since 4 March 2021.
The mobile games developer struck an agreement to acquire Singapore-based gaming platform, Nextgamer.
The Company will be paying a total consideration of A$1.29 million for acquisition.
ICI stated that Nextgamer will generate income through in-game purchasing and advertising.
Meanwhile, the stock was trading at A$0.115 per share at 11:33 AM AEDT.
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19th Mar 12:07 PM AEDT
The Australian sub-index for miners – S&P/ASX 300 Metals and Mining (AXMM) was down as much as 1.7%, its lowest since 1 February 2021.
The metals and mining stocks track copper rates under massive pressure on Thursday due to higher dollar and spiking US Treasury bond yields.
Mining giants BHP Group Limited (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) slumped up to 2.3% and 1.5%, respectively.
Fortesque Metals Group Limited (ASX:FMG) dropped 1.3%.
However, the AXMM sector is overall up nearly 1% this year, as of the last close.
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19th Mar 11:55 AM AEDT
Crude oil prices have hit their lowest level in the past two weeks, recording a significant drop on the fifth consecutive day on Thursday on rising concerns over coronavirus cases in Europe and boosted oil inventories.
Image Source: © Capixadnan | Megapixl.com
- Brent crude traded at US$62.80 per barrel, up 0.08% from the previous close, while WTI crude oil traded 0.68% down at US$59.59 per barrel on 19 March 2021 at 11:08 AM AEDT.
- The prospects of another lockdown in Europe on rising COVID cases along with the sluggish vaccination program have hammered crude oil potential for demand growth.
- The rise in the US crude oil inventories for the fourth consecutive week due to a halting of refinery operations after Texas's severe storm in February has further added pressure on crude oil prices.
- Sector heavyweights Santos saw its biggest one-day decline since 10 March, while Woodside Petroleum dropped as much as 4.1% to a nearly one-month low.
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19th Mar 11:51 AM AEDT
Sydney Airport Holdings (ASX:SYD) falls as much as 2.7% to A$6.13 a share.
The Company said its total passenger traffic in February 2021 was 623,000 passengers, down 79.8% from the same period last year.
In February, domestic and international passenger passengers traffic was down 70% and 97.5% respectively from the previous corresponding period.
SYD has fallen 1.7% this year, as of the last close.
Meanwhile, at 11:30 AM AEDT, the stock was trading at A$6.190 per share, down 1.747%.
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19th Mar 11:45 AM AEDT
Oil and gas explorer Blue Energy Limited (ASX:BLU) shot up as much as 44.7% to A$0.11 – its highest since 15 June 2018.
The stock has posted its biggest intraday percentage gain since 3 December 2020.
The Company stated that it has signed a deal with Origin Energy Ltd (ASX:ORG) for the supply of up to 300 PetaJoules of gas at Wallumbilla over ten years from Blue Energy’s Northern Bowen Basin ATP814 coal seam gas tenure.
Approximately 15.8 million shares were traded as compared to the 30-day average volume of 1.9 million shares.
Meanwhile, BLU was quoted at A$0.100 a share, up 31.578% at 11:18 AM AEDT.
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19th Mar 11:30 AM AEDT
S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology (AXIJ) is all set to register a bad day, has dropped as much as 2.6% already.
AXIJ takes cues from tech-heavy Nasdaq. IXIC declines 3% overnight, harmed by growing treasury yields and new concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.
The Tech subindex is on track to hit its lowest in one-week.
The BNPL giant Afterpay Limited (ASX:APT) has shed off 3.8%, is at A$108.52 per share; Xero Limited (ASX:XRO) lost 3% and NEXTDC (ASX:NXT) declines 2.7%.
AXIJ is down 9.7% this year as of the last close.
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19th Mar 11:29 AM AEDT
On Friday, Australia named the head of PwC's global regulatory policy, Margaret Cole, as a full-time member of the country's banking regulator. In her new role, she will be tasked with overseeing activities at Australia's AUD3 trillion ($2.3 trillion) pension industry.
Margaret Cole shall join the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) on July 1 for five years and was a senior executive at the British Financial Services Authority at the time of global financial crisis in 2008.
APRA anticipates that Margaret Cole shall bring a solid administration experience and international viewpoint to APRA, further strengthening APRA's leadership capability.
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19th Mar 11:08 AM AEDT
Volpara Health Technologies (ASX:VHT), whose integrated breast care platform assists in delivering personalised breast care, declared today the publication of the results of the second round of Project DENSE.
The current results involve 3000 women and show that the false-positive rate has been considerably reduced.
The first results from DENSE were released in December 2019. They showed a significant decline in interval cancers in those selected for breast MRI using VolparaDensity, but with a relatively high false-positive rate.
The SENSE trial started collecting patients ten years ago and is the first randomised controlled study on the clinical utility of breast MRI supplemental screening for women with, particularly dense breasts.
The study used Volpara® DensityTM software to measure breast density.
Meanwhile, the stock's share price was quoted at A$1.320 per share, up 1.930%, with a market cap of A$325.06 million at 10:27 AM AEDT.
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19th Mar 11:06 AM AEDT
Alcoa Corporation (NYSE:AA) said on Friday that it had signed new, five-year electricity supply agreements with AGL Energy (ASX:AGL), Origin Energy Limited (ASX:ORG) and Alinta Energy for its Portland aluminum smelter in Australia’s Victoria.
The Portland smelter consumes about 10% of Victoria's electricity and is the biggest single electricity consumer in the state.
The government had offered to ensure the smelter earned at least AUD76.8 million through June 2025, and the company said on Friday that the state of Victoria had agreed in principle to match the federal government's funding package.
The smelter is co-owned by Alcoa, Australia's Alumina Limited (ASX:AWC), CITIC Resources and an arm of Japan's Marubeni Corporation.
While the financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed, the agreements shall commence on 1 August, subsequent to the expiry of its current agreement with AGL, Alcoa said.
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19th Mar 10:50 AM AEDT
In the latest development, iron ore giant Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX:FMG) has concluded a US$1,500 million high yield bond offering of Senior Unsecured Notes maturing in April 2031.
The unsecured notes have an interest rate of 4.375 per cent and the transaction was upsized to US$1,500 million from its initial launch at US$750 million due to strength in demand.
The Company has plan to repay its US$750 million 2022 unsecured notes as well as meeting the general business requirements, including the repayment of debt.
Meanwhile, FMG shares were noted at $20.150 with a $62.50 billion market capitalization.