Stocks making the biggest moves at noon: Alterity, Karoon Energy, MinRes and more

These are the ASX companies and sectors making headlines in afternoon trade.

Alterity Therapeutics (ASX: ATH) – Shares surged 100% after the clinical-stage biotech company announced positive results for its Phase 2 trial for ATH434, a drug for early-stage multiple system atrophy (MSA). The trial showed that the 50 mg dose of ATH434 slowed disease progression by 48% over a year, which was statistically significant. Patients on the 50 mg dose also showed improved motor performance and overall disease severity.

Mach7 Technologies (ASX: M7T) – Shares in the medical imaging software solutions company rallied 10.3% after announcing an on-market buyback of up to $5 million shares. "The Board considers the buy-back to be an efficient use of capital given the strength of Mach7’s balance sheet and strong cash inflows to date," the company said in a statement. The company has a cash balance of $25.3 million as of 29 January 2025, with a market cap of $90 million.

Karoon Energy (ASX: KAR) – Shares rallied 6.3% after the company launched a further US$75 (~A$120m) on-market share buyback over the course of 2025. The buyback is relatively significant compared to the company's market cap of approximately $1.1 billion. Karoon also reaffirmed its capital return plan, which includes a dividend payout ratio of 20-40% of underlying net profit.

Uranium stocks continue to bounce back after the DeepSeek-related selloff on Tuesday, which drove most names down 10-20%.Stocks leading the upside today include include Lotus Resources (+6.6%), Paladin Energy (+5.2%), Bannerman Energy (+4.6%) and Boss Energy (+3.6%).

Appen (ASX: APX) – Shares dipped 10.3% (despite opening 3.0% higher) after the company announced its December quarter report. Key highlights include:

• Revenue down 7% to $66.7 million

  • Revenue (ex-Google) was up 37% (from $48.6 million in 4Q23)

• Quarter-on-quarter growth of 23.3%, largely driven by growth in generative Ai projects

• Underlying EBITDA up 67.8% to $4.7 million

• Cash on hand of $54.8 million as of 31 December 2024

Articore (ASX: ATG) – Shares in the global online marketplace dipped 10.3% after the company issued a softer-than-expected 1H25 trading update.

• Marketplace revenue down 12% to $230.4 million

• "Despite our efforts to reverse the decline in the Redbubble's MPR, we are yet to see a meaningful improvement."

• "We expect trading conditions to continue to be soft in our key markets. In this environment, we will remain focused on optimising unit economics, maintaining cost discipline and maximising synergies across the Group."

Mineral Resources (ASX: MIN) – Shares eased 2.1% following a mixed Q2 update. Mining services volumes came in below estimates (70.7Mt vs. RBC's 71.1Mt), while lithium unit costs exceeded the company’s full-year guidance. Additionally, MinRes flagged net debt of $5.1 billion as of 31 December 2024, well above the consensus expectation of $4.4 billion.

Accent Group (ASX: AX1) – Shares fell an additional 4.0% after dropping 7.5% on Wednesday following the company’s mixed first-half FY25 trading update. The update projected EBIT of $80 million for 1H25, slightly above consensus expectations of $78.2 million, but below estimates when excluding a one-off $3.3 million from non-recurring items. It also highlighted a slowdown in like-for-like sales, which dropped to 2.9% (vs. Citi’s estimate of 3.5%), and further declined to 1.8% in the last six weeks of 1H25. As a result, Citi analysts downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral and reduced their target price by 1.6% to $2.43.