ASX Opens Stronger on Banks, Large Cap Miners; DroneShield Soars 20%
The Australian sharemarket opened higher on Tuesday as gains by the heavyweight miners and banks offset falls elsewhere.
The S&P/ASX 200 index advanced 0.4%, or by 35.10 points, to 8670.10 at 10.10am AEDT, with six of the 11 sectors stronger.
Financials was the best performer, up 1.1% in early trade, with ANZ up 2%, National Australia Bank by 1.7%, Commonwealth Bank 1.4% and Westpac by 1.1%.
Miners were mixed with BHP and Rio Tinto up 0.5% and 1.2% respectively as copper rose overnight as markets focused on tight supply next year, with renewed disruptions and resilient demand offsetting concerns about the global economy, ANZ says. Among gold miners, Northern Star fell 0.7%, but Newmont rose 0.7%.
DroneShield rocketed 19.6% to be the market leader, as it secured a $49.6 million contract through a European reseller supplying a military end-customer. Shares in the company soared 10.6% in the previous session to $2.30.
In company news, REA Group fell 3.2% on Google’s moves to display real estate ad, sparking a sell-off of US property peers including Domain-owner CoStar and Zillow. Citi said that Google’s was unlikely to have a major impact on REA.
Southern Cross Electrical Engineering added 2.5% after it secured contract awards totalling about $90 million across data centre and rail projects in NSW.
Star Entertainment was flat at 10.5¢ after it announced Bruce Mathieson Jr would become executive chairman after the departure of Steven McCann as chief executive at the end of Tuesday.
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