The share market has ended the first day of the week in the red despite gaining some ground after dropping by as much as 0.6 per cent in early morning trade.
By the end of trade, much of the losses had been recovered, with the S&P/ASX 200 falling by 6.2 points or 0.083 per cent to start the trading week, reversing part of Friday’s gains.
Nine sectors fell on trading today, with only Energy, Materials and Utilities avoiding the drop, gaining 1.31 per cent, 1.4 per cent and 0.72 per cent respectively.
Energy and Materials companies led the gains on the market while Technology and Consumer Discretionary led the retreat.
Winners’ circle
The Energy sector-led growth on the market today.
Oilex enjoyed a 33.33 per cent jump, Gas2Grid shares grew 50 per cent, while Pancontiental Energy leapt 100 per cent.
Renascor Resources jumped 17.14 per cent after announcing the completion of the commercial-scale milling equipment trials for its planned graphite mine and battery anode manufacturing operation in South Australia.
Some of the big energy players enjoyed gains as well, Woodside rose 2.49 per cent, Santos 0.74 per cent while Beach Energy shares were up 0.38 per cent.
Big Materials companies gained on the market; BHP was up 2.33 per cent, FMG was up 1.23 per cent, and South32 was up 3.83 per cent.
Ragnar Metals enjoyed a 16.22 per cent jump, Critical Resources shares went up 16.98 per cent as it entered a trading halt pending an announcement regarding results from its New South Wales drilling program.
Cassius Mining and Traka Metals also witnessed double-digit growth, growing 15.79 per cent and 20.08 per cent, respectively.
Commonwealth Bank and Westpac posted marginal gains, with the share price increasing 0.55 per cent and 0.39 per cent respectively. Also on the Financial front, BIR Financial enjoyed a 19.35 per cent jump.
Despite a drop in the overall Technologies sector, Novonix enjoyed gains on the market this morning as it announced the start of its Nasdaq listing process. The battery materials and technology firm are up 11.12 per cent.
Doghouse
Superior Resources topped the losers list today after posting a 20.55 per cent drop in its share price. Newly listed Careteq wasn’t too far behind, falling 20 per cent on its debut.
The Technology sector drove much of the losses today, with Afterpay (2.31 per cent), Xero (2.92) and WiseTech (2.88 per cent) all posting losses. car
The Consumer Discretionary sector also didn’t fare well. Wesfarmers dropped 2.43 per cent, Domino’s Pizza fell 2.28 per cent and JB Hi-Fi slid 2.46 per cent.
Bucking the trend of gains in the Materials sector, Element 25 was down 7.50 per cent and Carnaby Resources was down 5.07 per cent after it announced it had discovered broad high-grade copper gold at its Nil Desperandum Prospect within the Greater Duchess copper gold project in Mt Isa, Queensland.
Fellow Material players Achemy Resources and Asaplus Resources dropped on the market, falling 15.4 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.
Industrials player OldFields Holdings fell 14.3 per cent while technology company MOQ fell 12.9 per cent.
Other markets
Asian markets posted gains as the session advanced. The Asia Dow increased 0.31 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 0.85 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite 0.25 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei however followed the ASX down, falling 0.033 per cent late trade.
Oil has dropped, which Brent crude increased to US$81.92 a barrel.
Gold also dipped slightly. Gold shed US$5.10 or 0.13 per cent to US$1,792.30 an ounce.
The dollar was up 0.15 per cent to 71.93 US cents.