ASX on pace for worst week since Sept

Derek Rose | December 9, 2022

The local share market has clawed back a little of its losses from its three-day losing streak this morning, but still was on track to suffer its worst week since September.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 15.2 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 7190.7 at noon AEDT on Friday, while the broader All Ordinaries was up 13.8 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 7383.2.

For the week the ASX200 was down 1.5 per cent. With a few hours of trading left, it looked set to suffer its worst weekly performance since late September. 

Friday’s gains came after Wall Street overnight snapped a five-day losing streak, with the S&P500 rising 0.8 per cent ahead of the release of key producer price index (PPI) data early on Saturday AEDT.

Just three of the ASX’s 11 sectors were up at midday, but the heavyweight mining sector was among them, climbing 1.2 per cent as China’s reopening continued to reverberate.

BHP was up 1.9 per cent to $47.09, Fortescue Metals had climbed 3.1 per cent to $21.435 and Rio Tinto was up 2.6 per cent to $117.42. Those are the highest levels since June for all three mining giants.

Both goldminers and lithium producers were down modestly, with Newcrest falling 0.7 per cent and Allkem dropping 2.3 per cent.

In the energy sector, Beach was up 1.7 per cent to $1.6725 after the Kerry Stokes-backed gas company bowed out of the bidding for Perth Basin junior gas explorer Warrego, declining to match a $341m, 28c-per-share bid by Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Energy. Hancock isn’t in the clear to acquire Warrego, however, given that Strike Energy has recently acquired 19.9 per cent stake in its joint venture partner.

Elsewhere in the sector, coalminer New Hope was up 2.6 per cent while oil and gas giant Woodside had edged 0.2 per cent higher, even as Brent crude extended its losses to $US76 a barrel, its lowest level since late December.

The big banks were mostly up, with both Westpac and NAB climbing 0.6 per cent and ANZ up by 0.1 per cent. CBA was the outlier, dipping 0.4 per cent.

Healius was down 1.6 per cent to $2.835 after the pathology chain agreed to sell its Montserrat Day Hospital chain of 11 day hospitals to the Queensland Investment Corporation for $138.6 million. The chain will become a bolt-on acquisition for QIC’s Nexus Hospital chain.

Bigtincan Holdings dropped 20.1 per cent to 57.5c after the Sydney sales software company on Thursday went ahead with a $35 million capital raising despite objections from its biggest shareholder and tentative takeover suitor, SQN Investors.