SYDNEY, AAP – Investors on the Australian share market have not started confidently on the second day of trade for 2022, mimicking mixed results on Wall Street.
The ASX was lower by 0.27 per cent on Wednesday due to falls in healthcare and technology shares and looked unlikely to match Tuesday’s gain of almost two per cent.
Technology shares had the biggest drop, more than two per cent, after the US Nasdaq was weighed down by falling Tesla stocks.
Afterpay lost 3.81 per cent to $80.67. The company may be removed from the ASX this month due to its merger with US payments giant Block.
Market giant and healthcare provider CSL slipped almost one and a half per cent to $291.57.
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The biggest parts of the market were higher. Materials and financials gained less than half a per cent each.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 21.1 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 7568.7 points at 1200 AEDT.
The All Ordinaries index dropped 23 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 7903.8 points.
In the US earlier, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had a record closing high for a second successive day.
Interest rates remain low as many countries battle the latest wave of coronavirus infections, spawned by the latest variant Omicron.
On the ASX, shares in human resources technology provider Xref rocketed following second-quarter trading figures.
The shares were up 7.46 per cent to 72 cents after sales in the period jumped 71 per cent on the same quarter last year.
Chief executive Lee-Martin Seymour said new business demand was unprecedented.
Cancer drug developer Noxopharm had attention from investors after its chief medical officer took the chief executive role.
Dr Gisela Mautner will take the top job from February, having been at Noxopharm for three years.
Current boss and major shareholder Dr Graham Kelly will remain on the board.
Shares were up 4.87 per cent to 43 cents.
Among the miners, the big three each gained less than one per cent. Fortescue fared best and gained 0.7 per cent to $19.99.
In banking, Westpac was best of the majors and rose 0.69 per cent to $21.81. ANZ was the only one lower and shed 0.1 per cent to $27.97.
Engineering group CIMIC has won a $103 million contract to build a data centre in Indonesia.
CIMIC subsidiary Leighton Asia secured the deal with an undisclosed technology company.
Shares were up 1.19 per cent to $17.17.
The Australian dollar was buying 72.38 US cents at 1200 AEDT, higher from 72.15 US cents at Tuesday’s close.
