Miners rise, Santos & Oil Search surges on confirmed deal: ASX up 0.3% at noon

The Australia sharemarket soared at the open and eased back before lunchtime, yet still in front. At noon, the ASX/200 is 0.3 per cent or 22.4 points higher at 7391.9. The SPI futures are pointing to a rise of 20 points.

Amongst the sectors, materials are the best performer while the energy, tech and financial sector are also pushing ahead. Meanwhile health care and real estate are weighing on the index. 

Mining giant BHP (ASX:BHP) is up 0.5 per cent and Fortescue (ASX:FMG) is up 1.3 per cent, slightly bouncing back after thursdays losses. Alumina (ASX:AWC) is trading 7.3 per cent higher and South32 (ASX:S32) is trading 5.7 per cent higher. 

Oil companies Santos (ASX:STO) and Oil Search (ASX:OSH) finalised terms for their $21 billion merger, now trading 1.5 and 3.3 per cent higher. WiseTech (ASX:WTC) is up 2.1 per cent after trading ex-dividend today and TechnologyOne (ASX:TNE) is up 1.8 per cent. Qantas (ASX:QAN) is up 1.9 per cent and Commonwealth (ASX:CBA) is leading the major banks up 0.4 per cent. 

NSW recorded 1542 new Covid-19 cases, Victoria recorded 334 new cases and Queensland recorded 0 new cases. 

Company news 

Infratil (ASX:IFT) committed $315 million (US $233 million) to establish Gurin Energy, a renewable energy development platform. 

Woolworths (ASX:WOL) is set to issue EU $550 million ($880 million) in sustainably linked bonds

Energy giants Santos (ASX:STO) and Oil Search (ASX:OSH) are set to merge after ongoing talk. 

Best and worst performers

The best-performing sector is Materials, up 1.2 per cent. The worst-performing sector is Health Care, down 0.9 per cent.

The best-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Alumina (ASX:AWC), trading 7.3 per cent higher at $2.20. It is followed by shares in South32 (ASX:S32) and Iluka Resources (ASX:ILU).

The worst-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Omni Bridgeway (ASX:OBL), trading 6.5 per cent lower at $3.72. It is followed by shares in IRESS (ASX:IRE) and Magellan Financial Group (ASX:MFG).

IPO

Mt Malcolm Mines NL (ASX:M2M) listed on the ASX today with issue price of $0.20, opened at $0.29 and now trading at $0.235.
Zoom2u (ASX:Z2U) listed on the ASX today with issue price ofissue price at $0.20, opened at $0.35 and now trading at $0.345.

Commodities and the dollar

Gold is trading at US$1794.67 an ounce.
Iron ore is 1.5 per cent lower at US$130.26 a ton.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a fall of 0.6 per cent.
One Australian dollar is buying 73.67 US cents.