TMH Market Close: ASX200 finishes down as real estate stocks slide

The ASX200 continued the downward trend today, closing down about 0.6 of a per cent to be below 7350 points.

Most sectors are in the red, with real estate taking the biggest hit, sliding 2.2 per cent, which likely stems from US trade data that suggests interest rate cuts could be further away than hoped.

In this bulletin, we’ll look at news from Mount Gibson Iron, Raiz Invest, Recce Pharmaceuticals, Cromwell Property Group, BHP and Ampol.

In the green

Iron ore producer Mount Gibson Iron (ASX:MGX) was up more than 3.8 per cent on its December quarterly update.

The company’s iron ore sales volumes were a record for the last half of the year, with revenue of $436 million for that time – $228 million for the December quarter alone, boosted by higher iron ore prices.

The company confirmed it’s on track to achieve its annual guidance.

MGX closed at 53.5 cents.

Australian and Southeast Asian focussed investment platform Raiz Invest (ASX:RZI) was up two and three quarters per cent (2.74 per cent) – after its activity report showed revenue was up 6 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

The revenue of $5.47 million – was more than 23 per cent higher than for the same period last year.

RZI closed at 37.5 cents.

And a company with an anti-infective drug candidate Recce Pharmaceuticals (ASX:RCE) was up nearly 10 per on results from it phase1/2 clinical trials for diabetic foot infections.

R327 is on the path to becoming a new drug to treat UTIs and sepsis infections.

The trial achieved its required endpoints and will now be expanded to a global cohort.

 RCE closed up at 53.5 cents.

In the red

As the real estate sector tumbled, so did related listed funds, including the $982 million market cap Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW).

But the company has also been in the red since announcing earlier in the week that its portfolio book value had been downgraded by 7.5 per cent or $192 million dollars since June.

BHP Group (ASX:BHP) shed 1.8 per cent on the release of its activities report for the December quarter.

Iron ore production came in four per cent higher quarter-on-quarter at 65.8 million tonnes, while copper was down four per cent for the same period.

During the quarter, BHP shipped a total of 70.3 million tonnes from its West Australia Iron Ore operations, but that fell somewhat short of market estimates.

The company is assessing Nickel West, given the depressed nickel price and supply and demand forecasts.

BHP closed at $45.73.

And petroleum supplier and refiner Ampol (ASX:ALD) dropped 2.5 per cent today after providing an update.

Lytton refinery volumes for the fourth quarter were down 152,000 litres on the previous quarter due to outages last month.. Full-year results are due out next month.

Ampol closed at $35.07.