ASX News LIVE | ASX to Rise as After Soft Bounce; Gold and BTC on the Rise

The Australian stock market rose for the second consecutive day, with the ASX 200 gaining 0.39% to close at 7,763.7.

Commonwealth Bank reached a record high of $119.37, while National Australia Bank and Westpac also climbed to multi-year highs.

The resources sector declined due to ex-dividend stocks in the major players, while mid-cap gold miners had a fairly positive day on the benchmarks.

Investors seem optimistic about the banking sector due to expectations of lower interest rates and a relatively healthy economy. On Wall Street, the Nasdaq added 0.6%, and technology giant Nvidia reached a new all-time high.

The Australian dollar strengthened slightly over the session, up +0.07% to US 65.81 cents.

Two of the eleven sectors were in the red today, with underperformance by the Energy sector, falling -1.15 %, while the top performing sector was Industrials, up +1.33% and Tech, up +1.03%.

In individual performances, the top gainer today was 29 Metals up +12.33%, while Droneshield fell by -14.39% by session close after what appears to be director share selling pressure.

Uranium producer Deep Yellow [ASX:DYL] entered a trading halt today as the company announced a capital raise.

Shares in the company have risen by nearly 98% in the past 12 months as uranium producers surged with the rising Uranium prices.

Uranium sold off slightly last week as American sanctions on Russia avoided targeting Russian uranium enrichment companies for fear of drastically cutting supply.

From here, the argument of a longer-term supply deficit or the opposite has been hotly debated with no clear winner.

For investors excited about the possibility of nuclear in the future, the price run-up has been a vindication, but where it goes from here is still heavily speculative.

Deep Yellow expects to resume trading on Monday, 11 March.

The ASX 200 is up +0.29% at midday, trading at 7,756.0 as almost all sectors recovered from prior day losses.

Only Energy (-1.17%) is substantially in the red at noon, as large-cap Woodside Energy fell by -2.75% and Viva Energy was also down -2.81%.

On the other end of the market, Genesis Minerals (+5.26%) was the midday greatest gainer on the ASX 200, followed by Life360, gaining +4.66% after a week of volatile movement.

Many of the Big Four have hit new highs today, with CBA, NAB, and Westpac all touching fresh highs.

BHP, Bapcor, G8 Education, IDP Education, Michael Hill, nib, Pinnacle Investments, Platinum Asset, Rio Tinto, South32, Viva Energy and Woodside Energy all trade ex-dividend today.

Financial crime watchdog AUSTRAC said it has started an investigation into online gambling company Bet365.

The company stands as one of the world’s largest online gambling companies, which facilitates more than US$65 billion in bets a year.

Owned by the Coates family, the company has been under scrutiny since an external audit report highlighted issues with its handling of cash.

Brendan Thomas, chief executive of AUSTRAC said today:

‘Corporate bookmakers must have robust systems in place to ensure they can manage and mitigate risks associated with money laundering and terrorism financing.’

 

‘Businesses without adequate processes in place to manage those risks leave themselves vulnerable to exploitation by criminals.’

Good morning. Charlie here,

The ASX 200 opened up +0.15% to 7,745.4 after Wall Street bounced after two sessions of losses.

Many traders took their queue from Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech overnight in which he said rates had likely peaked, but the Fed was in ‘no rush’ to cut interest rates.

The market interpreted the speech as a clear indication of a pivot to rate cuts this year, pushing back some edge conversations about cuts starting in 2025.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies bounced off their big selloff in an incredible bounce that has seen the prices move over 10% down and then back up.

Wall Street: S&P 500 +0.51%, Dow +0.20%, Nasdaq +0.58%.

Overseas: FTSE +0.43%, STOXX +0.46%, Nikkei flat, SSE -0.26%.

The Aussie dollar gained +0.94% to US 65.65 cents.

US 10-year bond yields -5bps to 4.10%.

Australian 10-year bond yields -12bps to 3.97%.

Gold is up +0.94% to US$2,148.33, while Silver is up 1.93% to US$24.18.

Bitcoin rose +3.40% to US$66,045, while Ethereum rose 7.67% to US$3,817.

Oil Brent rose 1.06% to US$82.91, while WTI Crude rose 1.24% to US$79.12.

Iron ore rose +0.6% to US$115.15 a tonne.