The Australian share market has extended on its gains from yesterday and has gained 0.7 per cent at noon, clawing back from the sharp selling the market experienced on Monday. It comes as most of the sectors on the ASX are making gains today with tech stocks outperforming and rising over 2 per cent, echoing the theme on Wall Street where the Nasdaq gained 2.7 per cent, with the S&P 500 and Dow following, notching their second best day of the year.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 43 points up at 6,375. On the futures market the SPI is 42 points higher.
Local economic newsAustralian economy grew 0.4 per cent in March according to the fresh data released today by the ABS. It was less than the 0.5 per cent expected.
The services sector returned to positive territory and expansionary phase after rising by 6 points to 52.5 in May. It’s also the first month of positive growth in 2019, after the sector has been in contractionary phase, according to the Australian Industry Group’s(AIG) Performance of Services Index.
Company newsCooper Energy
(ASX:COE) has signed a deal with AGL
(ASX:AGL) for new gas supply agreements from its Sole, Gippsland Basin and Casino Henry, the Otway Basin gas operations. The Sole gas field is poised to become south-east Australia’s newest source of gas supply when it starts production after the Orbost Gas Plant upgrade currently being undertaken by the APA Group. The Sole Gas Project will deliver an additional 68 terajoules (TJ) per day of natural gas supply for south-east Australia. Shares in Cooper Energy
(ASX:COE) are trading 3.96 per cent higher at $0.53.
Nine months after listing, Nickel Mines
(ASX:NIC) has completed a $55 million placement to increase its stake in the Ranger Nickel Project to 60 per cent. Nickel Mines
(ASX:NIC) shares are 2.4 per cent lower at $0.42 at noon.
Best and worst performersThe best-performing sector is Information Technology, adding 2.3 per cent, while the worst performing sector is Communication Services, shedding 0.6 per cent.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Bravura Solutions
(ASX:BVS), rising 4.95 per cent to $4.88, followed by shares in Bingo Industries
(ASX:BIN) and AfterPay Touch Group
(ASX:APT).
The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Vocus Group
(ASX:VOC), dropping 19.3 per cent to $3.70, followed by shares in Evolution Mining
(ASX:EVN) and Regis Resources
(ASX:RRL).
Asian markets Tokyo’s Nikkei is 1.7 per cent higher, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is 0.9 per cent higher and China’s Shanghai Composite has gained 0.3 per cent.
Commodities and the dollar Gold is trading at US$1,328 an ounce.
Iron ore price rose 1.3 per cent to US$100.38
Iron ore futures are pointing to a rise of 0.55 per cent.
One Australian dollar is buying 70.02 US cents.
