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The ASX gave up a morning win to close marginally red for the second session in a row ahead of the first US presidential debate.
President Donald Trump and Democrat candidate Joe Biden will go toe-to-toe tomorrow morning Australian time, and it seems investors wanted to take some risk off the table before the big event.
US futures are up around 0.3 per cent as the ASX closes, but our big banks and miners kept the local sharemarket subdued today.
The local benchmark ASX 200 index was up 0.7 per cent in early action today, but by market close had shed its gains completely to close a fraction of a point below the grey line. The index closed at 5952.1 points.
Our two heavyweight sectors each closed red, with financials down 0.4 per cent and materials down 0.15 per cent.
Westpac led the fall among our big banks, closing 1.27 per cent lower. NAB lost 0.77 per cent, ANZ lost 0.68 per cent, and Commonwealth Bank lost 0.72 per cent.
As for our resource stocks, iron ore giants BHP and Rio Tinto lost 0.65 per cent and 0.76 per cent, respectively. Fortescue Metals offset the losses as it tacked on a neat 1.89 per cent.
Our gold miners were similarly mixed. Newcrest lost 0.69 per cent and Northern Star lost 1.14 per cent, while Regis gained 0.39 per cent and Silver Lake gained 2.11 per cent.
However, it was the consumer staples sector that led the losses once more today. Dairy giant The a2 Milk Company continued to bleed after yesterday’s guidance downgrade and today closed 4.01 per cent lower. As for our supermarket giants, Woolworths lost 0.53 per cent and Coles lost 0.47 per cent.
Health care did what it could to fight off the worst of the losses, with sector leader CSL gaining 0.17 per cent. Sonic gained 0.65 per cent and Cochlear gained 1.21 per cent.
The technology sector also kept the losses at bay with a 2.42 per cent win. Afterpay tacked on 2.48 per cent, Xero gained 2.98 per cent, and WiseTech climbed 3.41 per cent.
It’s a mixed day for major Asian markets today. As the ASX closes, the Asia Dow is down by 0.18 per cent and the Hang Seng is down by 0.58 per cent. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 is up 0.12 per cent and the Shanghai Composite is up 0.37 per cent.
The Australian dollar weaker against US currency but slightly up against UK currency. One dollar currently buys 70.85 US cents, 55.12 pence, 74.92 Japanese Yen.
Today’s ups and downs
Small-cap lithium miner Piedmont Lithium (ASX:PLL) surged for the second day in a row on the back of its supply deal with electric vehicle giant Telsa. Yesterday, the company signed up to provide spodumene concrete from its North Carolina deposit to Elon Musk’s tech empire for a potential 10 years. Shares soared 83.33 per cent yesterday and another 38.18 per cent today to closed worth 38 cents each — bringing their total weekly gain so far to over 150 per cent.
At the other end of the spectrum, Mithril Resources (ASX:MTH) tumbled after releasing the latest drilling results from its Copalquin gold and silver project in Mexico. While the results were positive by ordinary standards, they paled in comparison to previous results from the same deposit. As such, it seems Mithril fell victim to market expectations, and the company closed 27.5 per cent lower at 2.9 cents each.
