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ASX edges to record high; $5b gold merger unveiled
Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day.
The numbers
The Australian sharemarket edged higher to a new record on Monday, as investors pushed up the share prices of key technology stocks and big miners on the ASX.
The ASX gained 11.7 points, or 0.1 per cent, to close at 8447.9, just ahead of last Thursday’s record close, in a positive start to December’s first trading day.
The biggest corporate news of the day was that gold miner Northern Star will acquire De Grey Mining in a $5 billion deal, beefing up its gold output and making it by far Australia’s biggest ASX-listed gold producer.
De Grey’s shareholders will be paid in Northern Star shares under a scheme or arrangement, in an all-scrip transaction. They will receive 0.119 of a Northern Star share for each De Grey share, implying a value of $2.08 per share for De Grey’s scrip.
The benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq hit record highs. Credit: AP
The lifters
The two best-performing stocks on the index were gold miners, with De Grey shares soaring 29.6 per cent, while Gold Road Resources gained 9.4 per cent. Northern Star shares finished the day 5.3 per cent lower.
Among the other miners, Rio Tinto (up 0.9 per cent), BHP (up 0.4 per cent) and Fortescue (up 0.3 per cent) all gained as iron ore prices climbed over the weekend.
WiseTech shares rose 1.1 per cent after embattled founder Richard White tightened his grip on the company with a deal to acquire the majority of co-founder Maree Isaacs’ stake.
Among the major banks, ANZ climbed 0.6 per cent and NAB rose 0.5 per cent, while CBA and Westpac fell 0.3 per cent.
IGA operator Metcash’s shares rose 2.2 per cent after unveiling an 8.1 per cent increase in group revenue to $8.5 billion. Food sales were a highlight, rising 22.6 per cent, while liquor sales increased 4.4 per cent.
Telco giant Telstra has acquired prepaid provider Boost Mobile in a deal understood to be worth just over $200 million. The acquisition, expected to be completed this month, will see Boost Mobile employees integrated into Telstra and no changes for Boost’s thousands of prepaid customers. Telstra shares rose 0.5 per cent.
The laggards
Shares in fund manager GQG Partners plunged 14 per cent after UBS analysts downgraded the stock and warned of a period of “cyclical weakness” in flows for the company. It comes after GQG shares tumbled last month due to its investment in Adani, whose chair was charged with bribery in the US. Shares in technology player Nuix dropped 6 per cent.
The lowdown
Tribeca Investment Partners portfolio manager Jun Bei Liu said it had been a solid start to the month and pointed to what analysts call the “Santa rally”, where stocks rise in the lead-up to Christmas. Liu highlighted the strength in some of the lithium names, with Mineral Resources and IGO Resources both up 6.2 per cent.
“We normally get the Santa rally, because markets normally rally into the year-end. We’ve definitely seen some of the resources names doing better, namely lithium,” Liu said.
Liu said the gain in WiseTech shares could be in anticipation of positive news from the tech company at its investor day on Tuesday.
On Wall Street, indexes rose to records in a shortened session on Friday.
Investors monitored shoppers’ responses to deep Black Friday discounts. Adobe Analytics estimated consumers would spend a record $US10.8 billion ($16.6 billion) in online purchases, up 9.9 per cent from Black Friday last year.
Tech giants drove Wall Street higher, with Nvidia (up 2.2 per cent) and Tesla (up 3.7 per cent) both making strong gains.
The S&P 500 rose 0.56 per cent to 6,032.44 points after breaching its intraday record high of 6,025.42 set on November 26.
The Dow Jones climbed 0.42 per cent to 44,910.65 points. The Nasdaq gained 0.83 per cent at 19,218.17 points.
”Retailers do a lot of importing. Inventory levels are very important to their profitability and ability to kind of control margins, so they will be one of the industries in the [tariffs] crossfire,” said Baird investment strategist Ross Mayfield.
“But so far ... [things are] looking pretty solid for the Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale.”
Chip stocks rebounded from Wednesday’s declines, sending the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index 1.5 per cent higher.
The small-cap Russell 2000 index also rose 0.4 per cent as Treasury bond yields retreated further from multi-month highs.
With Reuters, AAP
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correction
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Boost Mobile’s prepaid plans don’t offer access to the full Telstra network.