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ASX down 0.23% at noon: Santos trading 6.4% higher

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2023-12-08

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Utilities weighed down the sharemarket, countering a strong Wall Street session driven by a tech rally shortly after Friday's trading began. Among the benchmark's 11 sectors, only miners and energy showed gains, while communications, financials, and discretionary sectors experienced significant declines.

At noon, the S&P/ASX 200 is 0.23 per cent lower at 7,156.80.

The SPI futures are pointing to a fall of 19 points.

Best and worst performers

The best-performing sector is Energy, up 0.6 per cent. The worst-performing sector is Utilities, down 0.72 per cent.

The best-performing large cap is Santos (ASX:STO), trading 6.44 per cent higher at $7.27. It is followed by shares in Allkem (ASX:AKE) and Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS).

The worst-performing large cap is Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST), trading 2.17 per cent lower at $12.405. It is followed by shares in Mercury NZ (ASX:MCY) and Woodside Energy Group (ASX:WDS).

Asian news

Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.23% after the GDP data, while the Topix fell 0.71%.

South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.81% and the small-cap Kosdaq advanced 1.08%.

Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 16,423, pointing to a stronger open compared with the HSI’s close of 16,345.89.

Company news

Lincoln (ASX:LML) has increased their Kookaburra Gully Graphite Project resource by 87% to become second largest graphite resource on Eyre Peninsula. Lincoln Minerals CEO Jonathon Trewartha commented, “the resource upgrade provides strong momentum for our plans to commence an update to the Feasibility Study expected to commence mid-2024 and is scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2024.” LML’s CEO is on the Hidden Gems webinar today, tune in at 12:30 pm via the sc or fnn websites. Shares are trading flat at 0.7 cents.

OncoSil Medical (ASX:OSL) announced the commencement of the inaugural commercial treatments utilising the OncoSilTM device in Greece, taking place at a prestigious medical facility located in Athens. The treatments are for patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Shares are trading 12.5 per cent higher at 0.9 cents.

Avira Resources (ASX:AVW) that the Phase 2 diamond drilling campaign has now commenced with the drill rig now on-site and preparing to drill at the Company’s Puolalaki Project located in northern Sweden. The drilling is expected to take approximately 2-3 weeks to complete, and first assays are expected late January depending on core processing and lab turn-around-times. Shares are flat at 0.15 cents.

Commodities and the dollar

Gold is trading at US$2044.90 an ounce.

Iron ore is 1.8 per cent higher at US$136.05 a tonne.

Iron ore futures are pointing to a 2.6 per cent rise.

One Australian dollar is buying 66.02 US cents.

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