• The ASX finished modestly lower on Tuesday
  • Paladin Energy tanks as Namibia threatens to nationalise uranium companies
  • Binance to cease all AUD trading pairs on June 1st.

 

Local shares lost a bit of direction today as Wall Street was closed yesterday for Memorial Day. The ASX 200 finished the day -0.15% lower.

Sector performances were mixed, with gains in Comm Services being offset by losses in Real Estate.

Oil price has edged higher in Asian trading, as investors held their breath for a Congress approval for the US debt ceiling.

WTI has climbed to over US$73 a barrel this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Australia has a deepening housing crisis, as total dwelling approvals fell 8.1% month-on-month in April, according to ABS data today

“The overall decline was driven by a fall in approvals for private sector dwellings excluding houses, which fell 16.5%, to the lowest level since January 2012”.

 

Binance to cease all AUD trading pairs

Binance will cease all AUD trading pairs on June 1st.

In an email to customers, Binance said: “Users can continue to withdraw AUD via bank transfer until 17:00 June 1, 2023 AEST. After this time, users will not be able to withdraw AUD directly to their bank account using PayID.”

This comes as its banking partner, Cuscal, wound down its partnership with Binance citing fraud concerns, and Westpac also banning customers from transferring to the exchange.

As reported by Stockhead’s own Rob Badman last week, the primary reason for Westpac disassociating themselves with Binance is a growing number of scams, especially in offshore cryptocurrency exchanges.

 

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Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) rose almost 4% today. It  announced that the Department of Regional NSW, Mining, Exploration and Geoscience (MEG) has approved the transfer of titles of two exploration tenement packages from Sandfire to Alkane Resources (ASX:ALK).

This completes the acquisition agreement announced on 9th March. As per the agreement 2,781,438 ALK shares have been issued to Sandfire.

Qantas (ASX:QAN)  rose 2% after holding its Investor Presentation day.

The airline said its upcoming ultra-long haul ‘Project Sunrise’ flights to Europe and North America will generate around $400 million of earnings in the first full year.

 

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Uranium miner Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) was the worst large cap stock today, sold off by 19.5% before rushing to put itself on a trading halt.

Investors reacted following news that Namibia is considering taking minority stakes in mining and petroleum production companies.

There are also concerns the government may even force companies to be fully nationalised.

“We are making a case that local ownership must start with the state, which holds ownership of our natural resources,” Mines and Energy Minister Tom Alweendo said, as reported by Bloomberg.

Namibia is one of Africa’s biggest producers of diamonds and largest of uranium. Paladin’s Langer Heinrich Mine is situated in the country’s Namib Desert, 80km east of the major Walvis Bay seaport.

Lithium miner Sayona Mining (ASX:SYA)  fell 12% after announcing the completion of an underwritten institutional placement. The company  raised $200 million from institutional investors at 18 cents per new share.

Developer of independent living housings Lifestyle Communities (ASX:LIC) fell -3% after announcing that new home settlements for FY23 are expected to be in the range of 355 to 365.

The company has maintained its previous guidance of delivering between 1,100 to 1,300 and 1,400 to 1,700 new home settlements between FY22 and FY24, and FY23 and FY25 respectively.

Underlying profit for the full year is expected to be in line with FY22, due to increased annuity income driven by a higher number of homes under management.

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