The Australian share market has had a lacklustre start to the week, despite positive leads from Wall Street on Friday. The ASX200 sharply dived into the red at the open, and has continued to trade in negative territory in the first two hours.
However, the market received some good news out of China and the local bourse managed to claw back some of the losses and is now tracking 0.28 lower at noon.
Looking at the sectors, Telcos have been the biggest drag on the market so far this session falling 1.22 per cent, after Telstra
(ASX:TLS)'s shares dropped around 1.5 per cent.
Materials, Industrials, Energy and Utilties are all trading higher.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 16 points down at 5,749.
On the futures market the SPI is 5 points higher.
Asian markets Japan’s Nikkei is not trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has added 0.28 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has lost 2.06 per cent.
Fleshing out the good economic news out of China. The nation reported 6.9 per cent second-quarter GDP growth, which beat expectations of a 6.8 per cent rise against the prior year.
Company newsALS Limited
(ASX:ALQ) has entered into an agreement to sell its multinational oil and gas business for $109 million. The analytical testing service giant is selling its oil and gas business to Chicago based Madison industries. The sale is expected to be completed on 31 July 2017. The company says, it will retain the laboratory service component of the business, but it decided to sell the oil and gas business following a strategic review in November 2016. Shares in ALS Limited
(ASX:ALQ) are trading down 0.67 per cent at $7.43.
ChimpChange
(ASX:CCA) has reported record customer growth and etched its strongest customer growth since its IPO. The digital banking platform company says a year ago it took the business the entire monthly of June to achieve US$600,000 in deposits. But on 30 June 2017 it hit US$600,000 in deposits in just 1 day. As a result of the stellar growth, ChimpChange’s revenue for the June quarter rose 336 per cent from the prior corresponding period. In the June quarter, the company’s annualised revenue run rate exceeded AUD$1 million. Shares in ChimpChange
(ASX:CCA) are trading up 6.25 per cent at $0.68.
The best and worst performersThe best performing sector is Industrials, gaining 0.27 per cent to 5,625. Shares in Qantas
(ASX:QAN) have risen 1.56 per cent and trading at $5.53. Shares in Cleanaway Waste Management Limited
(ASX:CWY) and Downer Edi Limited
(ASX:DOW) are also stronger.
The worst performing sector is Telcos, falling 1.22 per cent to 1,494. Shares in Chorus Limited
(ASX:CNU) have fallen 1.91 per cent, trading at $4.10. Shares in Telstra Corporation Limited
(ASX:TLS). and TPG Telecom Limited
(ASX:TPM) are also lower.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,231 an ounce and
One Australian dollar is buying 78.22 US cents.
