Market Update: ASX dips 0.2% with energy in focus in Perth

It’s been a busy day at the Australian Energy Producers conference in Perth, where the morning’s guest speakers included resources minister Madeleine King and Woodside’s Meg O’Neill. 

Apart from King and O’Neill, WA minister for energy and environment Reece Whitby and former governor general Sir Peter Cosgrove opened the conference.

Mr. Whitby addressed conference attendees by speaking about the future of gas in the future of renewable energy and said ‘you face an existential challenge, will you go the way of the dinosaurs?’ 

King stressed the need to achieve net zero emissions, saying ‘emissions have to rapidly come down’ and also emphasised the role of gas on this journey. 

Energy stocks barely flinched with the sector marginally down by 0.09%.

The ASX200 is down nearly 0.2% – performing slightly better than futures had predicted.

IT is leading the gains mid-session, up more than a per cent with industrials not too far off.

Communications and healthcare are down more than half a per cent.

In company news

Medical diagnostics group Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL) is down nearly 9% after confirming that profit growth has been lower than expected for the 4 months to April 30.

The company blames inflationary pressures, fuelled by currency exchange headwinds.

SHL has been trading at $24.34.

Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX) is up more than 1% on completing Phase I safety and dosimetry study of TLX592, an investigational antibody-based targeted alpha therapy for prostate cancer.

Based on the results, Telix expects to advance to a therapeutic phase 1/2 study in the second half of 2024.

TLX has been trading at $15.54.

Haranga Resources (ASX:HAR) is up 17% after confirming its exploration team are more confident of uranium mineralisation being present at the Sanela target in the Senegal.

One result from an 8-metre section and a depth of 35 metres returned 351 parts per million of uranium.

HAR has been trading at 11 cents.

Alara Resources (ASX:AUQ) is up nearly 8% on news it’s set to ship its first lot of copper gold concentrate from the Al Wahishi Majaza project in Oman by Monday.

Off the back of that, Alara is now on track to start generating revenue.

AUQ has been trading at 7 cents.