Upwards ascent: Aus shares 0.98% higher at noon

Despite Wall Street closing lower on the back of a delay in voting on the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare, the Australian share market has surged higher this morning, jumping at the open and gaining momentum in the first two hours of trade, tracking 0.98 per cent higher at noon. While all sectors are in the black today, Health Care is leading the gains, followed by REITS and Financials with gains in all of the big four banks. Industrials are at the back of the pack and the only sector in the red with a loss of around 0.1 per cent.

The S&P/ASX 200 index is 58 points up at 5,766. On the futures market the SPI is 44 points higher.

Company news

Sky and Space Global Limited (ASX:SAS) says the company’s first wholesale operator, Sat-Space Africa has secured new commercial contracts to sell the company’s nano-sattelite communications bandwidth to new end users and retail customers. Sat-Space Africa forecasts potential revenues from these new customers of around US$500,000 per annum. The company also says there is potential for these revenues to grow to circa US$10 million to US$35 million per annum once the company’s full equatorial constellation is launched an operational by 2020. Shares in Sky and Space Global are trading up 5.13 per cent at $0.21

Downer EDI Limited (ASX:DOW) has announced its fully underwritten 2 for 5 accelerated renounceable entitlement offer to raise just over $1 billion. The institutional component of the offer will raise approximately $757 million. The railway operator says it has provided guidance that it will deliver an underlying net profit after tax of at least $175 million for the FY17 financial year. Shares in Downer EDI are trading 19.86 per cent lower at $5.61.

Best and worst performers

The best performing sector is Health Care, gaining 1.4 per cent to 22,233. Shares in Mayne Pharma (ASX:MYX) have risen 3.45 per cent and trading at $1.35. Shares in CSL (ASX:CSL) and Ansell (ASX:ANN) are also stronger.

The worst performing sector is Industrials, falling 0.07 per cent to 5,222. Shares in Downer EDI (ASX:DOW) have fallen 19.86 per cent, trading at $5.61. Shares in Monadelphous (ASX:MND) and Seek (ASX:SEK) are also lower.

IPOs

BigTinCan Holdings Limited (ASX:BTH) started trading today. The mobility software company floated with an issue price of $0.26, opened at $0.245 and is currently trading at $0.24.

Gold and the dollar

Gold is trading at $US1,244 an ounce and the Australian dollar is buying $US0.7632.