ASX standouts: Tuesday’s big movers and gainers

The ASX is down -1.24% today following a volatile session on Wall Street. 

Major US indices slid more than -3% after open before staging an encouraging turnaround, closing between 0.3% and 0.6% higher. 

The ASX has failed to following through on the US markets' positive finish, with every sector currently trading in negative territory.

11 ASX sectors at 10:45 am AEDT

ASX winners 

The ASX is largely in a sea of red, with only a handful of notable, announcement driven winners, including:

1 - Sezzle (ASX: SZL) surged 22% at open after confirming preliminary discussions with Zip (ASX: Z1P) about a possible merger. Zip shares are also trading higher, up 3.7%. 

2 - Codan (ASX: CDA) shares jumped 16.8% after the tech company reported unaudited first half sales growth of 32% to $257m. Codan said that it was able to successfully maintain supply to its customers despite the global shortage of electronic components and supply chain disruptions. 

3 - Myer (ASX: MYR) is up 6.7% following a trading update for the 5 months to 1 January 2022. The retailer said total sales were up 12.3% compared to the previous period.

4 - A2 Milk Company (ASX: A2M) is up 5.7% on no official news. The Australian reported last night that Canadian dairy giant Saputo is “set to announce a sizeable acquisition target in Australia”. Saputo has acquired multiple household Australian dairy names including Murray Goulburn, Warrnambool Cheese & Butter and Lion’s cheese division. 

5 - Perseus Mining (ASX: PRU) shares tipped 3.5% higher after achieving record gold production and operating cashflow for the December quarter. The update ticked all the boxes, “comfortably” achieving market guidance, lowering unit costs and strengthened its cash position.  

ASX losers 

The big four banks are weighing down the markets, all down between -1.8% and -2.6%.

Energy stocks are selling off sharply amid fears that a hawkish US Federal Reserve could send the economy into a recession and growing geopolitical risks in Ukraine and Taiwan. Major losers include: 

• Woodside Petroleum (ASX: WPL) -2% 

• Santos (ASX: STO) -2.5% 

• Beach Energy (ASX: BPT) -6%

Iron ore miners are broadly lower after China’s Tangshan city announced a new round of steel production cuts ahead of the Beijing Olympics. FastMarkets also reported a general decline in iron ore transactions as most steel mills have finished restocking ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. 

Fortescue Metals (ASX: FMG), BHP (ASX: BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) are all down between -0.1% and -1.5%. 

On the announcement front: 

1 - West African Resources (ASX: WAF) shares sunk -7.5% after the military in Burkina Faso seized power and overthrew President Roch Kaboré. WAF advised that its “staff and contractors are safe and … continuing to operate as usual.” 

2 - Accent Group (ASX: AX1) shares are down -3.4% following a trading update ahead of its half year FY22 results on 23 February. The footwear company expects earnings to be in the range of $30-31m (vs. $81.8m a year ago). Accent said that sales during the Christmas period were well down on expectations and the prior year, attributed to the rise of covid.