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It was a much better day on the market for many of the ASX sectors today.
The ASX200 closed up 0.11 per cent to 7712 points.
Property data pushed up real estate stocks for much of the day – it showed the median price of an Australian house is now less than $70k short of a million dollars.
The ABS data revealed a rise of $13,400 for the December quarter alone.
But it was the IT sector that led the day, closing up 1.15 per cent.
In the Green
Among the higher performing tech stocks was Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) which added 30 per cent today and has received a ‘please explain’ from the ASX.
It last traded at $1.08.
Meanwhile, Southern Cross Gold (ASX:SXG) closed up 20 per cent on its news that it plans to dual list on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE) by mid-May. The company was originally spun out of Toronto-listed Mawson Gold and reports 70 per cent of its shareholder base is outside of Australia.
Southern Cross closed at $2.05.
And Strike Energy (ASX:STX) gained 9.5 per cent after securing a deal with APA Group Pty Ltd to feed 10 terajoules of gas per day from its Walyering field into WA’s Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas pipeline.
A new connection will link Strike’s Walyering assets to the pipeline by late this year.
STX closed at 23 cents.
In the Red
Iron ore prices fell to a 5-month low on leading Asian exchanges today – including the Singapore SGX where the price is down to US$107 a tonne.
As a result, all three iron ore majors saw shares drop to year-to-date lows.
BHP Group (ASX:BHP) lost 0.7 per cent, Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) 0.2 per cent, but Fortescue Ltd (ASX:FMG) took the biggest hit – losing 1.16 per cent. FMG closed the day at $24.75.
Bougainville Copper (ASX:BOC) fell more than 4 per cent just a day after announcing a new MD and CEO, and a new CFO and company secretary. It comes as the company prepares to transition from caretaker mode to exploration following a breakthrough with the PNG Government on its project licence last month. The announcement revealed the project would be more than 70 per cent owned by the Government and people of PNG.
Bougainville Copper closed at 69 cents.
And finally today, uranium explorer in the US state of Oregon, Aurora Energy Metals (ASX:1AE), shed more than 4 per cent today, after MD Greg Cochran resigned, vowing to stand down before the end of the financial year, and after the company extended the exclusivity period for its proposed takeover by Macro Metals (ASX:M4M). The due diligence period has been extended until the end of the first week of May.
Aurora closed trade at 11.5 cents, but Macro lost far more – over 16.5 per cent – to close at 0.005 cents
