The ASX200 is up just over half a per cent – beating futures predictions – with all sectors glowing green mid-session.
Nevertheless, data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) pertaining to the dwellings and home ownership market revealed that the total number of dwellings approved fell 1.9 per cent in February, after a 2.5 per cent fall in January.
However, approvals for private sector houses rose in all states: topped by Western Australia at 20.7 per cent followed by New South Wales at 17.0 per cent.
Today BlinkLab, Suncorp Group, Haranga Resources, Cochlear and Pioneer Lithium have piqued our interest
Company news
The ASX welcomed BlinkLab to the bourse today, it’s been trading under the ticker code BB1 and was up as much as 50 per cent before settling later in the morning.
The company is developing Princeton University technology that uses an AI-driven smartphone app to screen for autism and ADHD. Led by former ResApp Health chair Brian Leedman, BlinkLab was able to raise $7 million with 20 cent shares through the IPO process.
It is aiming for US Food and Drug Administration approval to take it to the next level of its journey.
BB1 has been trading at 24 cents.
Queensland-based bank Suncorp Group (ASX:SUN) is up nearly .6 of a per cent after selling its New Zealand life insurance arm, Asteron Life Limited, to Resolution Life, a holding company of Resolution Life Group in Australia and New Zealand – in a deal valued at A$375.4 million.
This involves an initial payment of A$228.9 million upon completion, with the remainder to be settled 18 months later with interest.
SUN has been trading at $16.44.
Senegal-based explorer Haranga Resources (ASX:HAR) has kicked off leach testing from its Saraya uranium deposit. Initial signs show the potential for higher grades of uranium to be yielded from atmospheric leaching with sulphuric acid, which picked up uranium grades higher than 96 per cent compared to 84% through an alkaline atmospheric leach.
The samples were derived from diamond core, which reflected a mineral resource estimate (MRE) at Saraya of 587 parts per million (ppm) triuranium octoxide (U308), but Haranga managed to achieve a head grade that was 14 per cent higher than this.
The company’s been trading at 12 cents.
Hearing implants developer Cochlear (ASX:COH) is up nearly a per cent on news the ACCC will not oppose its plan to buy a rival implant business called Oticon Medical from Danish giant Demant. Oticon is focussed on producing discreet medical aids.
COH has been trading at 90 cents.
Pioneer Lithium (ASX:PLN) has picked up more than 73 thousand hectares of land in Brazil – in the hopes it will be prospective for rare earths mineralisation, given the territory’s underlying geology.
The tenements comprise the Verde Valor project, located in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia, where explorers have increasingly come looking for rare earth plays.
Brazil is believed to host the greatest reserves of these minerals in the world.
PLN has been trading at 16 cents.