ASX 200 opens in green; PointsBet, Whitehaven Coal lead gains

The Australian share market surged higher at the open on Thursday as the US market made a stellar recovery after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell calmed nerves about aggressive interest rate hike in March 2022. The war between Ukraine and Russia continued for the seventh day, leading to a continued surge in oil prices, which have now raced to an eight-year high. The benchmark ASX 200 rose 1.23% or 87.6 points to 7,193.8 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Image Source: © 2022 Kalkine Media®

The US and European stock markets rebounded on Wednesday, while crude prices broke above US$110 per barrel-mark, posing a major challenge for central banks across the world to curb rising inflation.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s signal about a less aggressive interest rate hike helped Wall Street ended sharply higher on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.79% to end at 33,891.35 points, while the S&P 500 was up 1.86% to 4,386.54. The NASDAQ Composite ended the session 1.62% higher at 13,752.02.

How has the market performed so far?

As of 11:00 AM AEDT, the ASX 200 was trading 0.87% or 62.1 points up at 7,178.8, while the ASX All Ordinaries index was up 0.92% or 68 points up at 7,474.3. The A-VIX fell 3.11% to 16.28 in the early session.

Data Source: ASX (as of 3 March 2022, 11:00 AM AEDT)

Image Description: Top 5 ASX gainers and losers

Coming to the top ASX 200 gainers, PointsBet Holdings Limited (ASX:PBH) was leading the pack with a 9.78% gain to AU$4.04, followed by a 9.77% rally in Whitehaven Coal Limited’s (ASX:WHC) shares to AU$3.93. On the flip side, Zip Co Limited (ASX:Z1P) was the top loser, falling 2.82% to AU$1.895, followed by Coles Group Limited (ASX:COL) which fell 2.72% to AU$17.12 in early trade.

On the sectoral front, seven out of 11 sectors were trading in the green. A surge in crude oil has lifted the energy index by 2.96%, while the materials sector was also up 2.16%. The consumer staples sector was the top loser, falling 1.29%.  

Read More: Why Telstra (ASX:TLS) is on investors’ radar amid Russia-Ukraine conflict

Newsmakers

1. Ardent Leisure Group Limited (ASX:ALG)

• The company’s Main Event Entertainment Inc has completed an asset acquisition of three family entertainment centres in Colorado operating as ‘The Summit’.
• Total contractual purchase price for the acquisition is approximately US$26 million.
• The combined unaudited LTM revenue for the three centres (as of December 2021) was approximately US$24 million.

2. Tali Digital Limited (ASX:TD1)

• TD1 securities have been suspended from quotation on the ASX, at the request of Tali Diital, pending the release of an announcement regarding a proposed capital raising.
• The Company is continuing to finalise a proposed capital raising and anticipates that an announcement in this relation will be made by 10 March 2022.
• The last closing price of TD1 shares was AU$0.019 on 28 February 2022.

3. RareX Limited (ASX:REE)

• It has received firm commitments to raise AU$10.0 million with strong demand from domestic and offshore institutional investors.
• The company will be issuing 111.11 million new shares at a price of AU$0.09 per share.
• The proceeds will be used to underpin a major new phase of resource growth and development studies on its flagship Cummins Range Rare Earths Project in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia.

4. Schrole Group Limited (ASX:SCL)

• Schrole Events (online recruitment events management software) has successfully completed its first international recruitment season.
• Nine online events have been delivered across Asia, Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Americas.
• The events were targeted as an important revenue driver in 2022-23 recruitment season.

5. Emerge Gaming Limited (ASX:EM1)

• The company reported a 521% jump in net profit to AU$3.07 million in 1H FY22, compared to a profit of AU$495.09K in 1H FY21.
• Despite a massive jump in net profit, no dividend has been declared for the reported period.
• Emerge remained well funded with reported cash balance of AU$16.6 million, as at 31 December 2021.

Read More: BPT, NST and GMG - Three ASX shares on investors’ radar to fight inflation