The Australian share market traded finished virtually unchanged on Tuesday, with investors cautious amid reports that United States is close to securing trade deals with key global partners ahead of the 9 July tariff deadline.
The S&P/ASX 200 index fell just 1.2 points to close at 8,541.1, with seven of the 11 sectors trading in positive territory.
Utilities led sector gains, driven by strength in Origin Energy, up 0.7%, AGL Energy, gaining 0.9%, and Mercury NZ, up 1.4%.
Real estate companies and investment trusts also rallied, with Mirvac adding 0.9%, Vicinity Centres up 1.6%, and GPT gaining 2.1%.
Stockland rose 1.7%, while Scentre Group advanced 2.8%.
Meanwhile, Industrials lagged the broader market, as Reece and Brambles lost 0.4% apiece, while Transurban declined 0.9%.
Among the major banks, ANZ, National Australia Bank, and Westpac traded higher, while Commonwealth Bank slipped 0.9%, and Macquarie dipped 1%.
Among individual companies, Seven Group Holdings (SGH) dropped 2.9% after announcing that Vik Bansal would step down as chief executive of Boral and transition to a non-executive director role at SGH.
Insignia Financial jumped 5.2% after private equity firm CC Capital said it would continue to “actively work towards making a binding bid for the company” and expected to finalise financing and investment committee approvals within two weeks.
HMC Capital plunged 17.3% following the resignation of its head of energy transition, Angela Karl. The company also announced a one-month delay to its planned acquisition of French renewable energy firm Neoen’s Victorian assets.
Mesoblast jumped 11.2% after the biopharmaceutical company announced progress in discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding one of its treatments.
On the bond markets, yields on 10-year and 2-year Australian government bonds were down 0.9% and 1.2%, to 4.121% and 3.189%, respectively.
