Trade war fears are continuing to wreak havoc on global markets while the Australian stock market has shown its resilience today, gaining over 0.6 per cent in the first two hours of trade, back at 10-year high territory, with financials leading most of the market higher today.
ANZ
(ASX:ANZ) is up the most today out of the big banks today, rising 2.3 per cent. While telcos are the only sector in the red, stumbling over 4 per cent after Telstra
(ASX:TLS) shed 5.2 per cent taking it near its all time low after it announced it will axe 8,000 jobs and reduce 2-4 layers of management.
Iron ore price fell 3.0 per cent to US$66.45 and its futures are pointing to a fall of 0.7 per cent, while the big miners, like BHP
(ASX:BHP), and Fortescue
(ASX:FMG) are seeing minor losses, while Rio
(ASX:RIO) trades higher.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 45 points or 0.7 per cent higher at 6,147 at the minute. On the futures market the SPI is 38 points higher.
Company news Woolworths
(ASX:WOW) has removed single-use plastic bags across Australia from today. It’s removing 3.2 billion single-use plastic bags from circulation every year in support of a greener future for Australia. It comes as three-quarters (74.7%) of its shoppers said they wanted to move away from single-use plastic bags. But what's interesting, if you were to shop in Tasmania, plastic bags were already banned across the state in 2013. Woolworths
(ASX:WOW) shares trade 0.3 per cent higher at $29.40.
BrainChip
(ASX:BRN) appointed a new lead independent director, Julie Stein, with the goal of advancing shareholder value, and also working closely with management on the businesses strategy. The CEO of the company says she been a primary force in driving the company’s intellectual property and cybersecurity initiatives. BrainChip
(ASX:BRN) shares last traded at $0.14.
Kycker
(ASX:KYC) entered into a trading halt today pending an announcement about its capital raising, and expects to come out of a halt no later than Friday 22 June. Its shares last traded at $0.14 yesterday.
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector is financials adding 1.6 per cent, while the worst performing sector is telcos, gaining 4.5 per cent.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Bellamy's Australia Limited
(ASX:BAL), rising 4.5 per cent to $16.91, followed by shares in Wisetech Global Limited
(ASX:WTC) and Altium Limited
(ASX:ALU).
The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Telstra Corporation
(ASX:TLS), dropping 5.2 per cent to $2.76, followed by shares in Greencross Limited
(ASX:GXL) and Coca-Cola Amatil
(ASX:CCL).
Asian markets Japan’s Nikkei has lost 0.06 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is flat and China's Shanghai Composite has lost 0.5 per cent.
Commodities and the dollar Gold is trading at $US1,275 an ounce.
One Australian dollar is buying 74.03 US cents.
CryptocurrenciesSome of the most traded cryptocurrencies are trading mixed. Bitcoin is1.6 per cent lower to US$6,632 Ethereum trades at US$523 and EOS trades at US$10.29
