The Australian sharemarket lifted for a fourth straight day, its longest winning streak in around a month, with the ASX 200 rising by 45.2 points or 0.65 per cent, to 7009.7. Nine (of 11) sectors and 163 (of 200) stocks finished in positive territory. Mining and Energy sectors rose by 0.5 per cent and 1 per cent respectively, following a lift in the price of most commodities overnight. The Big 4 banks all posted gains for the fourth straight day, and helped the broader Financials sector lift 1 per cent. The Tech sector snapped five days of gains after posting a 0.3 per cent decline.
In company news, The Star Entertainment Group (SGR) resumed trade after the final report in connection with the review of The Star Sydney was made public by the NSW Independent Casino Commission. The casino operator says that it is “currently considering the report and the matters raised in the notice”. SGR shares closed 4.5 per cent higher.
Ramsay Health Care (RHC) resumed trade and was amongst the worst performers today. This comes after it received
correspondence from a consortium led by KKR, who are ‘not in a position to improve the terms’ of a revised acquisition proposal. The revised proposal comes after the Consortium’s ‘review of RHC’s FY22 result announcement’. RHC shares finished 10.35 per cent lower.
Link Group (LNK) fell by 20 per cent, its most since June 2019, after the administration services provider updated the market on a UK regulatory hurdle it is facing in relation to the $2.5 billion acquisition by Dye & Durham.
AGL Energy (AGL) now expects the outage of its Loy Yang A Unit 2 generator to extend ‘until the second half of October 2022’. AGL says that the extension ‘will not have a material impact’ on its FY23 earnings. AGL shares finished 1.5 per cent higher.
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Atlas Arteria (ALX) agreed to acquire a 66.67 per cent majority interest in the Chicago Skyway. The toll road operator says that the acquisition represents an equity value of US$2 billion and ‘is subject to the receipt of regulatory approvals’ including ‘consent of the City of Chicago’. ALX is still in the trading halt it entered yesterday after it confirmed media speculation of its participation in the competitive sale process to purchase Chicago Skyway toll road.
Imugene (IMU) has resumed trade and finished 2.2 per cent higher despite announcing an A$80 million institutional placement at $0.20 per share (an 11 per cent discount to its previous close). IMU says that the funds raised will help ‘ensure a long runway’ for existing opportunities and research & development rebates.
Tonight in the US, inflation data will be released – headline inflation (monthly) is expected to ease by 0.1 per cent while annual inflation is estimated to fall by 0.5 per cent to 8.0 per cent.
4.4bn shares were traded, worth $7.4bn. 841 stocks rose, 545 fell & 407 finished unchanged.
Originally published by Divik Nigam – (Author), CommSec
