ASX flat; Platinum tumbles 14pc; GQG rises 6pc

The Australian sharemarket recovered some of its earlier losses on Monday and rallied into the close despite a sharp sell-off in energy stocks and Platinum Asset Management.

The late rally left the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index flat on the day at 8423 points at the closing bell, with nine out of the 11 sectors in the green. The All Ordinaries also finished little changed.

“After selling off at the open, the ASX 200 got down as far at 0.6 per cent, but has climbed throughout the late morning and afternoon,” said Ophir Asset Management’s head of research Luke McMillan.

“The Aussie market was weighed down by the material sector, but the big stock news was Platinum as Regal pulled the pin on their due diligence.”

The energy sector was the worst performing on the ASX, sinking 1.1 per cent, as it tracked a weaker oil price after two weeks of decline. Brent futures traded near $US71 a barrel after Saudi Arabia reduced its crude prices for Asia by more than expected and as traders watched for any fallout from the toppling of the Syrian regime.

Woodside Energy fell 1.1 per cent to $23.79, Santos declined 0.8 per cent to $6.54 and Ampol slid 2 per cent to $28.03.

The mining sector was also in the red as iron ore slipped more than 1 per cent in Singapore late last week and extended the decline into Monday. Iron ore pure play Fortescue Metals dropped 1.2 per cent to $19.25, while mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto slipped less than 1 per cent.

In financials, fund manager Platinum tumbled 14.4 per cent to 89¢ after Regal ended buyout talks with no new deal reached. “They likely couldn’t agree on value courtesy of the funds under management outflows Platinum has been suffering,” said Mr McMillan.

Regal’s shares dropped 5.5 per cent to $3.78.

Index heavyweight Commonwealth Bank helped limit losses as Australia’s biggest lender finished up 1.5 per cent to $159.38. It was a mixed session for the rest of the banking sector.

Meanwhile, the consumer discretionary sector recorded the most gains. Aristocrat Leisure rose 2 per cent to $69, Breville increased 2.9 per cent to $37.11 and sector heavyweight Wesfarmers added 0.7 per cent to $74.59.

Stocks in focus

ANZ has a new chief executive. Former HSBC wealth and personal banking chief executive Nuno Matos has been appointed to succeed Shayne Elliott on July 3, who is retiring after nine years in the role. The shares dropped 3.6 per cent to $30.03.

Life360 dropped 8.3 per cent to $24.03 amid queries about the stock’s weighting in the Russell indexes after the latter said it had done some recalculations. Life360 announced in September that it would join the Russell 2000 and the Russell 3000 – a move that typically attracts inflows from passive investors that track the indexes.

GQG Partners surged 6.2 per cent to $2.21 after the money manager reported higher funds under management in November and said it was terminating a buyback due to uncertainty around the US tax treatment of on-market buybacks.

And, Superloop rose 1.8 per cent to $2.30 following an announcement it will buy Uecomm from Optus for $17.5 million, giving it another 2000 kilometres of fibre in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.