In breaking news the US President and the North Korean leader have met for first time, shaking hands before cameras before their closed-door meeting at the Singapore Summit. Donald Trump told the press conference that he felt "really great" meeting Kim Jong Un.
President Trump also told everyone as the leaders sat side by side, “We are going to have a great discussion, and tremendous success. Tremendously successful…we will have a really good relationship, I have no doubt”.
Staying overseas, US markets closed in the green for their Monday session, with the tech stocks rising the most.
Back home, the Australian share market is in positive territory and managed to gain momentum amid the overseas leaders meeting. Our staples sector is leading over half of the sectors higher, with Costa Group
(ASX:CGC) shares rising 3.6 per cent, hitting a fresh all time high.
Meantime, Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia
(ASX:GMA) shares have popped 5.7 per cent higher today as it bought back about $14.2 million of shares with about $85 million of buy-back still on the cards, with its shares trading near its all-time low.
As for the underperformers today, most metal prices are trading lower amid the Singapore summit, while the ore price fell 1.0 per cent to US$66.75 and its futures are pointing to dip of 0.3 per cent.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is 0.3 per cent or 16 points up at 6.061. On the futures market the SPI is 11 points higher.
Company news Asia Pacific fibre network provider, Superloop
(ASX:SLC) announced the purchase of the fibre broadband customer base operated on the nbn network by ISP, SkyMesh for $1.5 million. The deal will add 10,000 broadband subscribers to its newly formed retail broadband division, Superbb. Superloop says the purchase kickstarts its position in the retail nbn marketplace, which it says will also aggressively disrupt the Australian ISP landscape, which is dominated by four dominate players. Superloop Shares are trading 4.7 per cent higher at $2.43.
Major US bank, JPMorgan Chase and its associates have snapped up a major stake in Aurelia Metals
(ASX:AMI), buying about 20 per cent (19.99 per cent) in the gold-lead-zinc-silver miner. It comes as its shares are trading near its five-year high. In April its gold production hit a record, plus it also declared it had no addition debt requirements beyond the $45 million that it used to purchase Peak Mines. Shares in Aurelia Metals
(ASX:AMI), are trading 1.3 per cent lower at $0.55
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector is staples adding 1.4 per cent, while the worst performing sector is utilities, shedding 1 per cent.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Limited
(ASX:GMA), rising 5.7 per cent to $2.61, followed by shares in Wisetech Global Limited
(ASX:WTC) and Sandfire Resources Nl
(ASX:SFR).
The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Ausdrill Limited
(ASX:ASL), dropping 21.4 per cent to $1.87 (after UBS closed out its major holding in the company), following are shares in Retail Food Group Limited
(ASX:RFG) and Mineral Resources Limited
(ASX:MIN).
Asian markets Japan’s Nikkei has added 0.6 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has added 0.3 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has gained 0.03 per cent.
Commodities and the dollar Gold is trading at $US1,298 an ounce.
One Australian dollar is buying 76.09 US cents.
CryptocurrenciesBitcoin trades at US$6,889 Ethereum is at US$534 and EOS trades at US$11.52.