ASX Market Close: A green Tuesday, an RBA hold, and the looming spectre of tariffs

Good Afternoon and welcome to HotCopper’s Market Close for Tuesday, I’m Jonathon Davidson. 

It was a green Tuesday at least, with the world now bracing for the so-called reciprocal tariffs Trump is set to kick off overnight Wednesday Australia time. The XJO closed at 7,925pts.

We got an RBA pause today, making real estate the best performing sector up 2.1% as the central bank posed no surprises to expectation. 

The worst performing sector was industrials, up 0.45% – but still in the green!

Talking of green, let’s have a look at companies ending Tuesday happy.

Southern Cross Electrical Engineering was the day’s biggest gainer with buyers still hungry one day after announcing its acquisition of Force Fire Holdings, a fire safety firm servicing QLD and NSW. Shares closed up nearly 10% at $1.81 each.

Meanwhile, Black Cat Syndicate jumped 8.3% in a surge of fresh liquidity as the company began processing gold at its Lakewood project, part of the company’s strategy to exploit record high gold prices. Shares closed at $1.04 per share.

Finally, property and lands stock AV Jennings also jumped 8.3% after it received a takeover offer from AVID property group and Proprium Capital for $365M, equal to its market cap as the market matched the price. Shares had jumped higher following an earlier superior offer, but talks with that player broke down. Shares closed at 65c each.

And so let’s turn to the reds. 

Finance player Tower Limited fell -8.15% as Bain Capital revealed it was selling off shares in the company – all 63.3M of them. This comes despite Tower’s one year returns of 97%; shares closed at $1.24 per share. 

Elsewhere, oil and gas stock Amplitude Energy fell for a second day after it was revealed Woodside had informed the company the cost of decommissioning the Minerva offshore field, a legacy asset, was going to cost more than thought. Amplitude’s wrapped up in that, pushing shares down more than -7.10% to 19cps.

Finally, Deep Yellow and other Australian uranium heavyweights fell on Tuesday as Trump’s latest tariff threats extended to the nuclear fuel. Unlike copper, that hasn’t helped a surge in the commodity price, as markets are expecting the US to slowdown purchases of yellowcake, given how much it sources from Canada. This is a sentiment play more than fundamental, but Deep Yellow ended down -7.10% at 98cps.

That’s Market Close for Tuesday, I’m Jonathon Davidson, have a great night and we’ll see you tomorrow.