by Melissa Darmawan
The Australian sharemarket has fallen for a second day and is on track to have its worst month since March 2020.
At noon, the S&P/ASX 200 is 0.8 per cent or 52 points lower at 6,645. The SPI futures are pointing to a fall of 54 points.
The oil price was set to extend its gains from a fourth day, however it fell 2 per cent on fears of weakening demand, with near-record prices set to suppress consumption. Investors also monitored the next steps with OPEC+ after the group concluded the meeting without discussing oil-production policy. However, what turned the oil price lower was the data from the EIA which showed that the four-week moving average of gasoline supplied fell below 9 million barrels a day, or about 600,000 barrels less than typical seasonal levels.
This could explain why energy is the worst performing sector, down 2 per cent while healthcare and communication services are the only two sectors higher by 0.8 and 0.5 per cent respectively. The rest of the sectors are trading lower in the range of 0.2 to 1.4 per cent.
The best-performing stock in the ASX 200 is PointsBet Holdings (ASX:PBH), trading 11.2 per cent higher at $2.69 and the worst-performing stock in the ASX 200 is Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN), trading 5.6 per cent lower at $1.68.
Leading the losses across a few of the sectors are ANZ Banking Group (ASX:ANZ), down 1.6 per cent to $22.26, Beach Energy (ASX:BPT) by 3.1 per cent to $1.74, EML Payments (ASX:EML), down 3.1 per cent to $1.26, Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) is down 2.5 per cent to $17.93 and Northern Star (ASX:NST) down by 1 per cent to $6.96.
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 are trading 0.5 per cent lower at $4.10.
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 are trading 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 are trading 0.1 per cent lower at $10.88. Shares in HRL Holdings are trading 5 per cent higher at $0.16.
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 are trading 0.6 per cent higher at $8.44.
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 are trading 14.30 per cent higher at $1.00.
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 are trading 22.2 per cent higher at 2.2 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 are trading 7.5 per cent higher at $2.00.
Commodities and the dollar
Gold is trading at US$1,820.50 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 0.9 per cent.
One Australian dollar is buying 68.86 US cents.
