ASX large caps: Local shares steady despite overnight’s ‘Metaplunge’

ASX large caps roundup 4 Feb 2022. Picture Getty

The ASX 200 seesawed in afternoon trade but mostly traded sideways as it closed the day slightly up by 0.26%, maintaining its level above 7,000 at 7,096.

The Tech sector also managed to stand its ground, up 0.6%, despite the biggest one day stock plunge in US stock market history as Meta (Facebook) plummeted 26% and wiped out US$230bn of market cap.

Other ASX sectors to rise today include Energy and Industrials, while most other sectors found themselves in the red by less than 0.5%.

The Materials sector meanwhile lost ground 0.25% as heavyweight Boral (ASX:BLD) adjusted down its valuation by 40% after trading ex-dividend, along with a massive cash distribution to shareholders.

On the economics front, a quarterly note released by the RBA today predicted that unemployment rate could fall to 3% if Australia could move on quickly from the Omicron outbreak.

The note also revealed that the central bank expects CPI to peak to 3.75% in June, which is much higher than its previous forecast of 2.75%.

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
BRN	Brainchip Ltd	1.73	9%	39,304,195	$2,725,835,809
LTR	Liontown Resources	1.455	6%	13,214,927	$3,003,557,776
NWS	News Corp	33.38	6%	286,509	$1,391,587,195
AVZ	AVZ Minerals Ltd	0.765	6%	19,381,528	$2,502,745,733
PBH	Pointsbet Holdings	5.12	5%	2,310,336	$1,288,999,746
QAN	Qantas Airways	5.17	4%	7,075,501	$9,335,921,255
CXO	Core Lithium	0.78	4%	16,372,407	$1,269,671,437
VUK	Virgin Money Uk PLC	3.81	4%	2,868,471	$3,189,427,973
AX1	Accent Group Ltd	2.07	4%	611,970	$1,083,733,430
S32	South32 Limited	4.11	3%	14,926,732	$18,506,724,397
EBO	Ebos Group Ltd	37.46	3%	14,864	$6,848,898,362
PTM	Platinum Asset	2.63	3%	2,159,505	$1,496,031,195
INR	Ioneer Ltd	0.66	3%	5,498,055	$1,312,350,975
Z1P	Zip Co Ltd.	3	3%	6,192,026	$1,713,509,512

Market darling Brainchip (ASX:BRN) was again leading the pack after rising by almost 7% on no news. On Tuesday, the US-based company announced it’s received an additional patent from the US patent office, bringing BRN’s total US patent suite to eight, along with one in China.

News Corporation (ASX:NWS)’s rose 5% as Q2 revenues increased by 13% to $2.72 billion, compared to $2.41 billion in the prior year. Revenues in the first half rose 15% year- over-year.

Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) jumped after it reported after hours yesterday on the successful completion of its $12.9m share purchase plan (SPP).

BIG CAP LOSERS

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
BLD	Boral Limited	3.81	-2%	9,204,443	$4,280,122,055
NUF	Nufarm Limited	5.48	-2%	3,024,388	$2,123,962,509
KAR	Karoon Energy Ltd	1.995	-2%	1,477,565	$1,134,992,536
ILU	Iluka Resources	10.21	-3%	2,383,252	$4,435,160,544
SDR	Siteminder	5.79	-3%	76,752	$1,616,988,416
DEG	De Grey Mining	1.175	-3%	3,863,829	$1,701,772,465
ABC	Adbri Limited	2.89	-3%	1,513,662	$1,951,356,389
ARB	ARB Corporation.	44.33	-4%	418,703	$3,756,258,545
SEK	Seek Limited	28.11	-5%	1,039,324	$10,419,410,394
TLX	Telix Pharmaceutical	6.845	-5%	1,263,891	$2,211,929,170

Boral Ltd fell 40% after announcing trading ex-dividend and capital return.

Boral’s shareholders will receive a total cash distribution of $2.72 per share which totals $2.93bn, as well as unfranked dividends of 7c a share which totals $77m.

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