Local stocks notched up a steady day of trade on Tuesday, as global markets grind ahead in the wake of last week’s US Fed meeting.

Wall Street is also pointing higher, with S&P500 futures up 0.3% in afternoon Asian trade.

The ASX 200 closed 0.6% higher but it didn’t get a boost from the two largest sectors — banks and mining — which traded flat.

Instead, large cap tech stocks paced the gains as the ASX 200 Information Technology index finished more than 2% higher.

That offset a sharp fall in the ASX 200 Energy index, as global markets continue to assess the impact on oil prices from Delta variant-led demand concerns.

With Australia’s major east coast markets still in lockdown for the foreseeable futures, the ASX 200 Consumer Staples index (which includes the big grocers) also had another good session, climbing by over 1.4%.

BIG CAP WINNERS

Swipe or scroll to reveal the full table. Click headings to sort.

Wordpress Table Plugin

As August reporting season draws to a close, a few more annual reports caught the eye of investors.

Leading the pack in large caps with news today was voice recording software platform Dubber Corp (ASX:DUB), which rose by more than 9%.

The company’s preliminary full-year results follow the successful execution of a $110m share placement in July.

DUB reported annual recurring revenues (ARR) of $39m as at June 30, a gain of 142% from the prior year ($16.1m) and its fourth straight year of growth since reporting ARR of $740,000 in 2017.

Also climbing today was data company Appen (ASX:APX), which listed in 2015 at 50c and hit a post-COVID high above $40 before falling out of favour with investors.

APX shares bounced off recent lows near $10 today to close above $10.70 for an intra-day gain of more than 10%.

There was a strong tech focus to today’s winner’s list, as logistics software company WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC) continued its huge rally from last week, while government-focused enterprise software company Objective Corp (ASX:OCL) also rose strongly.

BIG CAP LOSERS

Swipe or scroll to reveal the full table. Click headings to sort.

Wordpress Table Plugin

Leading the laggards was stem cell development company Mesoblast (ASX:MSB), which fell sharply after flagging regulatory holdups in the US, where the FDA said it will require an additional clinical study for its COVID-19 treatment before it can be approved for emergency use.