The Australian share market opened lower today and has continued to fall despite having profitable leads to follow on Wall Street after the S&P 500 rose 0.2 per cent, extending its rally to five days on trade deal hopes, while Materials and tech sectors led the way, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose the most out of the major US indices, up 0.6 per cent.
Overnight the oil price surged to its highest level this year, above the US$62.00 mark, while locally, the Energy sector is down the most, at the hands of profit taking with Woodside
(ASX:WPL) and Santos
(ASX:STO) shedding over 2 per cent.
Most of our sectors have been in the red this session, while the Info Tech sector is holding onto slight gains with Xero
(ASX:XRO) up the most
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 0.7 per cent lower or 47 points lower at 6,238. On the futures market the SPI is 46 points higher.
Company news Industrial minerals and technology company, Syrah Resources Limited
(ASX:SYR) has released first quarter 2019 Balama Graphite project results, highlighting a recovery, broadly consistent with the prior quarter. Its Mozambique project achieved sales volumes of 48kt, at the upper end of its 45kt -50kt guidance. As for the weighted average price achieved, that too was at the upper end of its guidance, US$460 – US$470 per tonne. However, its cash missed expectations. Syrah Resources
(ASX:SYR) are trading 10.9 per cent higher at $1.32 at noon, inking its third day of gains, and hitting a month high. Year-on-year its shares are 58 per cent lower.
A company which develops communication, energy and water networks, Service Stream
(ASX:SSM) presented at Goldman Sachs emerging companies conference, highlighting the projected growth in each of its divisions. The company says it’s set to benefit from the population growth and ageing infrastructure networks which require increasing maintenance, coupled with the fact that 60 per cent of maintenance works are outsourced. Its first half 2019 group revenue, EBITDA and EPS all grew on the prior period. Shares in Service Stream
(ASX:SSM) are trading 1.4 per cent higher at $2.18 at noon. Year-on-year its shares are 37 per cent higher.
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector is S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Discretionary losing 0.2 per cent, while the worst performing sector is S&P/ASX 200 Energy, shedding 1.6 per cent.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Syrah Resources
(ASX:SYR), rising 10.9 per cent to $1.32, followed by shares in Eclipx Group
(ASX:ECX) and CYBG PLC
(ASX:CYB).
The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Inghams Group Limited
(ASX:ING), dropping 8.2 per cent to $4.07, followed by shares in Harvey Norman Holdings
(ASX:HVN) and Worleyparsons
(ASX:WOR).
Commodities and the dollar Gold is trading at $US1,292 an ounce.
Iron ore price rose 3.5 per cent to US$93.08
Iron ore futures are pointing to a fall of 0.3 per cent.
One Australian dollar is buying 71.23 US cents.
