by Melissa Darmawan
The Australian sharemarket closed at session lows and had its worst day in two weeks in a broad-based rout.
At the closing bell, the S&P/ASX 200 was almost 2 per cent or 132 points lower at 6,568.
In other numbers, the index fell 8.9 per cent in June, its worst month since March 2020. It declined 12.4 per cent this quarter, snapping six straight quarters of gains. Tumbled 11.8 per cent this half year and closed off this current financial year by 10.2 per cent.
Utilities, materials, property, energy, and financials fell between 2.3 to 2.9 per cent each while healthcare shed the least by 0.2 per cent.
The best-performing stock in the ASX 200 was PointsBet Holdings (ASX:PBH), closing 10.7 per cent higher at $2.68 while the worst-performing stock in the ASX 200 was Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN), closing 7 per cent lower at $1.66.
Local economic news
There were 480,000 job vacancies in May, 58,000 more than in February, and more than double the vacancies in February, according to new seasonally adjusted figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Australian private sector credit for May rose 0.8 per cent versus the consensus of a gain of 0.6 per cent, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Company news
Building products giant CSR (ASX:CSR) will commence an on-market share buyback of up to $100 million. Shares closed 1.5 per cent lower at $4.06.
Ardent Leisure Group (ASX:ALG) is set to return $455.7 million to shareholders after completing the sale of its Main Event cinema business in the US. Shares closed 3.7 per cent higher at $1.40.
ALS (ASX:ALQ) has entered into a deal with HRL Holdings (ASX:HRL) under which ALS will make offers to buy all of the ordinary shares of HRL it does not already own by way of an off-market takeover at 16 cents per share. Shares in ALS closed 1.9 per cent lower at $10.38. Shares in HRL Holdings closed 6.7 per cent higher at 16 cents.
AGL (ASX:AGL) has announced a company which appears from ASIC searches to be a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management has bought 17.2 million shares or 2.56 per cent of the register as at June 24. AGL has not received any updated acquisition proposal from Brookfield, since the two proposals received earlier this year that were announced to the market. Shares closed 1.7 per cent lower at $8.25.
Collection House (ASX:CSH) has procured administrators after exhaustive attempts to restructure the business and raise additional funding were unsuccessful. The company has been put into a trading halt.
Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals (ASX:PAR) has received an official tick of approval from IP Australia for the treatment of bone marrow pathologies aimed to improve the knee function of a patient who has a bone marrow lesion and osteoarthritis by administering pentosan polysulfate sodium. Meanwhile, the company has a patent pending for the same treatment in the US which was knocked back earlier this year. This hasn’t stopped the company as they are set to file a response to the US patent and trademark office by the end of July. Shares closed 10.3 per cent higher at 96.5 cents.
Nickel explorer Estrella Resources (ASX:ESR) has unveiled exceptional assay results from their Spargoville project in Western Australia after its first round of drilling from the project’s 5A resource, of which, 60 per cent of planned holes were completed. Managing director Chris Daws says “as we know, grade is King and with 5A delivering such fantastic assays it’s only a matter of when, not if, this nickel gets mined”. Shares closed 11.1 per cent higher at 2 cents.
Race Oncology (ASX:RAC) has released further interim results from their preclinical cardioprotection program in collaboration with researchers of the University of Newcastle. This program is aimed at exploring the use of Zantrene®, a heart safe alternative in synergy with other anticancer treatments. The results showed the protection of the heart of the subject, which were mice, at higher levels of chemotherapy treatment with no additional general toxicity. Shares closed 4.8 per cent higher at $1.95.
Futures
The Dow Jones futures are pointing to a fall of 158 points.
The S&P 500 futures are pointing to a fall of 25 points.
The Nasdaq futures are pointing to a fall of 89 points.
The SPI futures are pointing to a fall of 89 points when the market next opens.
Asian markets
Japan’s Nikkei has lost 1.8 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has lost 0.1 per cent.
China’s Shanghai Composite has gained 1.4 per cent.
Commodities and the dollar
Gold is trading at US$1,817.58 an ounce.
Iron ore is 1.4 per cent lower at US$123.20 a ton.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a fall of 1.5 per cent.
Light crude is trading $0.25 higher at US$110.03 a barrel.
One Australian dollar is buying 68.93 US cents.
