Gains in utilities and materials: Aus shares trading 0.4% higher
Text-only (non-video) report.
The market has risen in early morning trade, mainly on the back of gains in the Utilities and Materials sectors, with strong trading in Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS), Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC), Alumina (ASX:AWC) and Telstra (ASX:TLS). Most of the sectors are in the black.
Mergers are making the news this morning, with a proposed $4 billion merger between lithium producers Galaxy Resources (ASX:GXY) and Orocobre (ASX:ORE), and a proposed $2.2 billion merger between investment managers Primewest (ASX:PWG) and Centurial Capital Group (ASX:CNI).
At noon, the S&P/ASX 200 is 0.35 per cent or 25.00 points higher at 7088.50.
Futures
Futures are pointing to a rise of 28 points or 0.4 per cent.
Best and worst performers
The best-performing sector is Utilities, up 0.9 per cent, and the worst sector is Energy, down 0.75 per cent.
The best-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Sims Limited (ASX:SGM), trading 9.47 per cent higher at $16.64. It is followed by shares in Eagers Automotive (ASX:APE) and Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA). The worst-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 is Pointsbet Holdings (ASX:PBH), trading 2.71 per cent lower at $13.27. It is followed by shares in Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) and National Storage (ASX:NSR).
Commodities and the dollar
Gold is trading at US$1776.04 an ounce.
Iron ore is $0.02 higher to US$178.43 a ton.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a rise of 2.28 per cent.
One Australian dollar is buying 77.20 US cents.
Copyright 2021 – Finance News Network
Source: Finance News Network