The ASX200 continued tracking a steady path forward, as the broader economy looks set to take a hit from Sydney’s ongoing COVID-19 troubles.

Across sectors, the ASX200 indexes for both Resources and the Materials continued on their merry way, posting a gain of more than 1% for the second straight day.

They were joined by the ASX200 Energy sector, which rebounded from yesterday’s falls with a 1.26% gain of its own.

And the big whale of the local market — ASX200 financials — also joined the party with a gain of 0.64%, offsetting small declines in the consumer staples and consumer discretionary sectors.

25 BIG CAP WINNERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow made market-moving announcements).

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Among stocks with announcements, biopharmaceutical company Starpharma (ASX:SPL) rose after announcing testing results for SPL7013, the antiviral agent in SPL’s VIRALEZE nasal spray.

SPL said results showed it has “potent virucidal activity against the globally significant Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, reducing infectivity of the virus by >99.99% after 30 seconds of exposure”.

Ecommerce play Temple & Webster (ASX:TPW) also rose strongly, after a quarterly update which showed post-Covid growth for online retailers may not be a thing of the past.

And two mining & materials stalwarts — Oz Minerals (ASX:OZL) and Bluescope Steel (ASX:BSL) — posted gains after invested responded positive to their latest trading updates.

25 BIG CAP LOSERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow made market-moving announcements).

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Among the laggards, shares in online marketplace website Freelancer (ASX:FLN) slumped by more than 15% following the release of the company’s half-year report.

Freelancer flagged half-year revenues of $22.7m, down 11.5% from the same time last year. The company said currency markets acted as a headwind to earnings, due to the relative strength of the Australian dollar against the USD.