The Australian share market jumped at the open after the Nasdaq and S&P 500 on Wall Street closed at record highs, but the ASX200 started to lose some steam in the first two hours of trade with miners going back into red territory after the iron ore and copper prices fell.
But the top 200 index is now gaining steam and it's back where it was mid-January, but still over 1 per cent lower than its record highs set in the beginning of January.
Today, most of the major sectors are charging forth with QBE Insurance
(ASX:QBE) bouncing to a top performing post, following on from yesterday’s news that it’s expecting a $1.2 billion after-tax loss.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 0.29 per cent higher 16 points up at 6,053 points, On the futures market the SPI is 7 points higher.
Company news Logistics software company, Getswift
(ASX:GSW) shares have been voluntarily suspended until it responds to the ASX’s queries. Its shares will come out of suspension once Getswift responds to the ASX by tomorrow (Thursday 25 January 2018). Prior to being in suspension, it’s shares were in a halt after the AFR published a story about it allegedly losing materially significant contracts. Its shares last traded on 19 January 2018 at $2.92.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group
(ASX:ANZ) is completing part of its $1.4 billion buy back. Over the last two business days it has bought back about $99 million shares. A share buyback is simply an offer a company makes to its shareholders to buy back some of its own shares, either off-market or on-market. Shares in ANZ are trading 0.6 per cent higher at $28.89.
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector is utilites adding 0.95 per cent to 8,003 points while the worst performing sector is materials, shedding 0.5 per cent to 11,705 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is QBE Insurance Group Limited
(ASX:QBE), rising 4.9 per cent to $10.95, followed by shares in Pilbara Minerals
(ASX:PLS) and ResMed INC
(ASX:RMD) (continuing its strong rally).
The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is St Barbara Limited
(ASX:SBM), dropping 4.1 per cent to $3.69, followed by shares in HT&E
(ASX:HT1) and Graincorp Limited
(ASX:GNC).
Gold and the dollar Gold is trading at $US1,341 an ounce.
One Australian dollar is buying 80.02 US cents.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading mixed.
Bitcoin has fallen about 2 per cent to $10,697
Ethereum has slipped about 3 per cent to $968
And Tether has gained about 0.4 per cent to $1.01.
