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Good afternoon and welcome to The ASX Today, I’m Seja Al Zaidi. It’s Thursday of Week 24, and today, the Aussie market traded lower as renewed U.S. strikes on Iran caused a bit of shaky investor sentiment. The market did recover well enough, though, from bigger losses earlier in the session.
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At lunchtime, the S&P/ASX 200 was down -0.4%, with weakness in tech and financial stocks offsetting slight gains in parts of the resources sector.
Global markets were rattled after U.S. forces launched fresh strikes on multiple targets in Iran for a second day, raising concerns the conflict could escalate further and disrupt energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz.
Those fears pushed Brent crude up 1.4%, to around US$94 a barrel, while the AUD fell to a two-month low of 70c USD as investors moved away from risk assets.
One of today’s big stories Down Under has been Super Retail Group – it gained +1.4% after unveiling a five-year growth strategy that’s headlined by expanding its store network from 790 locations to more than 900 by CY31. Megaport was also a standout, climbing over 4% on positive news associated with its capital raising.
Tech was the weakest sector after another tough session for growth stocks globally. Data centre operator NextDC fell -2.9%; Xero also dropped -2.4%
Elsewhere, Newmont fell 3.6%, while Fortescue lost 2.1% intraday. And Alcoa was among the biggest losers, tumbling 8.3% after warning energy disruptions on tensions around Hormuz could weigh on its alumina operations.
Southern Cross Media fell 4.2% after downgrading its earnings outlook and announcing plans to cut up to 300 jobs within the Seven Network. And Northern Star slipped 0.8% after activist investor Elliott Investment Management called for significant changes to the star-studded gold miner’s board.
That’s all for The ASX Today. I’ll see you tomorrow.
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