Healius shares dip after rejecting takeover offer: ASX is 1.5% higher at noon

The Australian share market has continued to rise throughout this morning after the US posted solid gains on Friday after a boost from impressive employment data from all jobs except farming in the US. Healius (ASX:HLS) shares have fallen over 4 per cent after it rejected a takeover bid from Chinese investor Jangho. Mining, energy and tech sectors of the market saw strong gains. With Real Estate Investment Trust not faring so well. Gold is down and the gold miners are feeling it - Northern Star Resources is down 3.9 per cent.

The S&P/ASX 200 index is 1.5 per cent higher 85 points up at 5704. On the futures market the SPI is 83 points higher.

Company news

Otto Energy (ASX:OEL) has started construction of an 18 Km ice road to Winx-1 exploration well in Alaska. It will take three weeks to complete, ahead of construction of the ice pad upon which Nordic Rig3 will be located for the drilling of Winx-1. All logistics and permitting remains on schedule for a mid-late February spud date. Shares in Otto Energy (ASX:OEL) are trading 7.5 per cent higher $0.04

Regenerative medicine company Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) has completed patient recruitment in the Phase 3 trial of its product candidate Revascor (MPC-150-IM) for advanced chronic heart failure. It’s to evaluate whether Revascor reduces recurrent non-fatal heart failure-related major adverse cardiac events over at least 12 months. The Phase 3 trial has enrolled approximately 570 patients across 55 centres in North America. There are over 8 million patients with heart failure in the United States alone. Shares in Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) 4.6 per cent higher ar $1.38


Best and worst performers

The best-performing sector is Energy, adding 2.4 per cent, while the worst performing sector is REITs, shedding 0.04 per cent.

The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Emeco Holdings (ASX:EHL), rising 10 per cent to $2.08, followed by shares in Orocobre (ASX:ORE) and Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR).

The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is St Barbara (ASX:SBM), dropping 4.3 per cent to $4.78, followed by shares in Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) and Healius (ASX:HLS).

Commodities and the dollar

Gold is trading at US$1,287 an ounce.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a rise of 0.9 per cent.
One Australian dollar is buying 71.20 US cents.