Australian shares followed on from Wall Street’s gains on Friday but stopped short of an all time record high.

The ASX shrugged off concerns about the impacts of the extended Sydney lockdown with the ASX 200 closing at 7,334 points which is 0.83% higher than Friday.

The ASX Emerging Companies Index had a far more modest day, closing just 0.06% higher, at 2,161 points.

Resources led the charge gaining nearly 2.2% while property trusts followed with a 1.23 per cent gain. The worst sector was consumer staples which retreated 0.38%.

Shares in Asia gained too with Japan leading the charge, gaining 2.3% and Shanghai gained over 1%.

Tech minnow Inventis (ASX:IVT) was the top ASX stock with news thanks to a trading update. The company is expecting full-year revenues of $16.8m, which is up 16% on FY20 and would mark a new record high for the group.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY’VE MISSED

Telco Swoop (ASX:SWP) announced its latest acquisition, in South Australian broadband provider Wan Solutions (trading as Beam Internet). Swoop will pay $6.7 million for the business and forecasts FY22 earnings for Beam to be at least $1.6 million.

Bell Financial (ASX:BFG), which runs the BellDirect platform and ECM firm Bell Potter, tips a pre-tax profit of $24 million for the first half of 2021. This is only 3% higher than the prior corresponding period but is nonetheless another record by the company.

Health product manufacturer Live Verdure (ASX:LV1) launched its first TGA registered product in TheraJoint. TheraJoint is administered in capsule form and intends to treat joint pain and inflammation.

Cazaly Resources (ASX:CAZ) appointed a new CEO in former Regis Resources (ASX:RRL) General Manager Tara French. It also announced its latest drilling campaign at the Halls Creek copper project was complete and all RC samples had been sent to the laboratory for analysis.

Bass Oil (ASX:BAS) is buying three assets in the Cooper basin from Cooper Energy (ASX:COE). These will be operated with a subsidiary of Beach Energy (ASX:BPT).

Lakes Blue Energy (ASX:LKO) released the results of production testing at its Nangwarry gas resource and has upgraded its resource to 25.9 billion standard cubic feet. The company is hoping to produce food-grade carbon dioxide and says it could produce over 150 tonnes per day for over 20 years.

 

TRADING HALTS

The following companies are in trading halts and are expected to exit over the next two trading days:

Tuesday

Elsight (ASX:ELS) – distribution agreement

Wednesday

Leaf Resources (ASX:LER) – business update
Caspin Resources (ASX:CPN) – capital raising
NewPeak Metals (ASX:NPM) – capital raising
Cirralto (ASX:CRO) – referral agreement revenues
Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) – capital raising
Cokal (ASX:CKA) – financing arrangement
Frugl (ASX:FGL) – capital raising
Field Solutions (ASX:FSG) – business update
Indiana Resources (ASX:IDA) – drilling results
iCar Asia (ASX:ICQ) – change of control transaction
Xstate Resources (ASX:XST) – acquisition