ASX standouts: Wednesday’s big movers and gainers

The ASX is off to a solid open, up 0.8% after Wall Street rallied for a second consecutive day. 

The market appeared to be less worried about the potential economic impact of the omicron variant, with broad-based buying taking place across all US sectors. 

Chinese policymakers announced on Monday measures to support its debt-ridden property sector, cutting the reserves most banks must hold by 50 basis points to improve liquidity and long-term funding. Iron ore prices and miners rallied as a result. 

Top gainers 

Afterpay (APT) is looking to retest $100 after opening 4% higher this morning. US tech stocks posted broad-based gains as investors shook off covid fears and bought the dip. Affirm jumped 10% overnight, while Square closed the session 5.3% higher.

The renewed risk-on attitude is driving gains towards household, large cap tech names like REA Group (REA), Seek (SEK) and WiseTech Global (WTC), all of which are up more than 3%.

Oil prices rallied 2.5% overnight, back above US$70/b after briefly hitting lows of US$62.5/b last Tuesday. ASX energy stocks are getting a kick this morning, with Woodside Petroleum (WPL) up 1.8%, Santos (STO) jumping 3.1%, Oil Search (OSH) gaining 3.4% and Beach Energy (BPT) adding 2.1%. 

Iron ore prices reacted positively to China’s stimulus news, finishing yesterday’s session up 8% to a 6-week high of US$111.3. Iron ore majors BHP Group (BHP), Rio Tinto (RIO) and Fortescue (FMG) are up between 2% and 3.5%. 

In the mid-cap end of town, Novonix (NVX) is staging a 10% jump at open following a sharp 32.5% selloff last Friday. Shares in the battery darling fell off a cliff after Tesla asked the US Government to waive tariffs on graphite from China. Tesla said that “Only mainland China could provide the quantity of graphite it needs … to manufacture its batteries in the US.” 

Zip (Z1P) is another stock that’s riding the rebound in tech, up 8% this morning. Yesterday, Zip released a trading update for November, citing a record performance across transaction volumes, transaction numbers and customers.