Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
Australia’s budget day dawns tomorrow, and while we’ve been given plenty of hints around a surplus and cost of living relief promises, uncertainty is still set to see the ASX200 open down around 0.1 per cent.
Wall Street closed out last week slightly ahead, the Dow Jones added about a third of a per cent, while tech stocks slipped slightly into the red.
Also likely to impact trade today are concerns around the ongoing tensions in both Israel and Ukraine.
There’ll be a new listing on the ASX today, D3 Energy raised US$10 million with 20 cent shares to explore for natural gas and helium in South Africa. The company does still have to attain exploration rights in that territory.
It’ll trade under the ticker code D3E upon admission to the ASX at 11am eastern states time this morning.
National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) is set to release its regular business survey this morning too, while Bunnings’ landlord BWP Trust (ASX:BWP) is this week closing its compulsory acquisition of Newmark Property REIT (ASX:NPR). BWP now holds more than 93 per cent of the stock. NPR will be suspended from the ASX in a week and delisted in 10 days’ time. A large proportion of Newmark’s assets are leased to Wesfarmers’ (ASX:WES) Bunnings, Officeworks and Kmart stores.
Astute Metals NL (ASX:ASE) will pay US$150,000 to the owner of competing claims at its Red Mountain Lithium Project in Nevada, Rubicon, to settle a dispute over the lithium claystone asset. Half the settlement will be paid upfront, with the remainder due over 12 months. Astute’s now wasting no time getting into exploration, with a drill rig due on site next week.
One Australian Dollar is buying US66 cents.
Gold has been trading at US$2361.74 an ounce, iron ore has been just below US$117 (US$116.93) a tonne, brent crude oil has been at US$82.5 a barrel and natural gas has been trading around US$2.22 per million British thermal units.
