ASX standouts: Tuesday’s big movers and gainers

The ASX has opened 6 points lower amid a choppy session for US stocks.

The Dow Jones (blue-chips) and S&P 500 (large-caps) closed a respective -0.5% and -0.1% lower but bounced strongly off session lows of around -2%. 

The Nasdaq Composite (tech) plunged as much as -2.7% within the first hour of trade, before closing 0.05% higher. 

The encouraging close has helped cushion the losses for the local market. 

Tech and healthcare sectors rally, others lag 

The S&P/ASX Technology and Health Care sectors are up 0.8% and 0.2% respectively, carrying over the optimistic close from Wall Street. 

Apart from those two sectors, all others remain in the red, led by the Energy and Financials sector, down -1.4% and -0.9% respectively. 

ASX winners 

Afterpay (ASX: APT) and Xero (ASX: XRO) are experiencing some relief buying after the recent rout among fast growing technology shares, up 2.4% and 1.4% respectively.  

Gold stocks are trying to push higher as spot prices reclaim the US$1,800/oz level after sliding to lows of US$1,780/oz overnight.

Large cap miners like Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM), Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST) and Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN) are up between 1-2%.

On the smaller end of town, healthcare company Polynovo (ASX: PNV) jumped 15% after announcing record sales for the second quarter ended 31 December 2020.   

ASX losers 

The Big Four Banks is the primary driver of weakness across the ASX on Tuesday, all down between -0.6% and -1.1%. 

Energy stocks including Santos (ASX: STO), Woodside Petroleum (ASX: WPL) and Beach Energy (ASX: BPT) are all trading around -1% lower. Crude oil prices retreated back below US$80 a barrel in the last two trading sessions. 

“Crude prices are lower after Libya’s largest oil field resumed production, Kazakhstan’s TCO oilfields are back to normal levels, and as China’s zero-COVID tolerance will lead to new restrictions,” said OANDA senior market analyst, Ed Moya.

“WTI crude may continue to drift here until a better understanding is had with how successful China is in preventing further spread of omicron.” 

Elsewhere, poultry and fodder producer Inghams (ASX: ING) has slumped -4.8% after an updating saying the business is experiencing “significantly lower levels of staff availability, which is impacting production volumes.”

The company said that these difficulties has resulted in the temporary suspension of a number of products.