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The Aussie market remains a touch softer at lunch on Tuesday but has recovered from its opening lows. The ASX 200 briefly hit positive territory but trades 9 points lower to 7,416 after midday.

The benchmark index was down as much as 37 points or 0.5% in the first 30 mins of trade. Local losses come despite a generally firmer session on Wall Street overnight with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 lifting to snap five day losing streaks.

The energy sector has been a standout early with a strong rise on the back of global oil prices lifting to six week highs. Woodside (WPL) is 6.6% higher with Santos (STO) and Oil Search (OSH) also adding more than 4% each. Utilities are the other sector with a big improvement while financials, materials and communications are trading mostly flat.

Losses have been heaviest among information technology as buy-now pay-later provider Afterpay (APT) falls 2.5%, industrials and consumer staples are also weaker. All three sectors are down over 1% each. Healthcare is also in the red with ResMed (RMD) dropping 4%.

 

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In company news, Brambles (BXB) shares are down 10%, and among the worst performers on the ASX 200, as the company commenced a 2-day investor briefing after market last night. BXB anticipates FY22 underlying profit growth of 1-2% with revenue growth of 5-6% with $US50 million of
short-term transformation costs impacting its bottom line.

Elsewhere, Vulcan Energy (VUL) is in a trading halt after announcing it is launching a $200 million institutional placement to accelerate exploration initiatives and expand its dual renewable energy and lithium development strategy.

Telix Pharmaceuticals (TLX) has received approval from the US FDA for stage 2 trials of a Kidney Cancer therapy study, TLX250. TLX shares are 7% higher.

In economic news, the monthly NAB Business Survey for August saw business confidence lift slightly but conditions fell from July. The Aussie dollar is fairly steady around 73.68 US cents.

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