US pharma Pfizer has just announced that a third COVID-19 booster dose given six months after the second shot will be effective against the new coronavirus variants, including Delta.

Pfizer said this is backed by initial data from its study on booster shots, as it seeks an emergency authorisation approval from the US FDA in August.

To the ASX…

Local stocks have been hit hard, with the ASX200 down 1.5% heading into midday trade.

The moves have broadly tracked proceedings on Wall Street overnight with Tech stocks being the worst performers.

All 11 sectors on the ASX are in the red, with the Tech sector losing ground by almost 4 per cent.

Afterpay (ASX:APT) and Zip (ASX:Z1P) were amongst the worst performers, falling by 6% each. Zip fell after rising by 15% yesterday on strategic investment rumours by Swedish fintech Klarna.

Other big caps showing large moves this morning include CSR (ASX:CSR) which dropped by 5% after major shareholder Vinva Investment reduced its shareholding.

Iluka Resources (ASX:ILU) shares were also dumped in a broad-based selloff, and dropped by 5%.

WINNERS

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Gold miners Petratherm (ASX:PTR) and Viking Mines (ASX:VKA) have each risen by 30% after announcing gold finds in their respective gold projects.

Energy company QEM (ASX:QEM) rose by 20% after confirming that it has successfully completed the first stage of a pre-feasibility study into power generation from solar and wind resources, as part of its green hydrogen project at Julia Creek.

Viva Energy (ASX:VEA) rose by 4% after saying that it’s expecting H1 FY21 earnings of between $390 million and $410 million, compared to $269.3 million in the first half of FY20 and $297.4 million in the first half of FY19.

Viva supplies approximately a quarter of Australia’s fuel requirements, including petrol to a network of 1,290 stations and also for fuel dependant sectors such as aviation.

LOSERS

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Nearmap (ASX:NEA) lost 4% along with the broad tech sellfoff and no specific news.

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