Technology stocks with exposure to artificial intelligence (AI) are being closely watched as the Australian share market resumes trading after a three day long weekend.
At 9 am AEDT (10 pm GMT) the S&P/ASX 200 March share price index (SPI) contract was 14 points or 0.16% higher at 8,386.00.
U.S. markets were mixed on Monday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.7%, the S&P 500 losing 1.5% and the Nasdaq Composite diving 3.1% on news of the popularity of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) model.
The prices of AI giant Nvidia and other technology companies plunged after Chinese start-up DeepSeek claimed to have developed an AI model at a fraction of the cost of its larger American counterparts.
Three days earlier the benchmark indicator in Australia had closed 0.4% higher at 8,408.9, ahead of the long weekend and Australia Day public holiday on Monday.
Morgans Financial private client adviser Lachlan Walsh said the Australian market would not be affected as much as the United States’ market by the DeepSeek development.
“The futures are surprisingly showing we will not follow the U.S., mainly because our tech sector does not take up that much (of our market),” Walsh said.
“Our biggest reflection of that is the data centres but they’re not going to be hit as much.
“Maybe sentiment about them might be affected but you will not see a sell-off like in the U.S.”
Australian stocks affected include Digico Infrastructure Reit Stapled Unit and Next DC and perhaps Goodman Group.
Walsh also expected Australian uranium miners to be weak today due to the impact modular reactors used to power data centres.
On fixed interest markets, yields on Australian Treasury bonds strengthened with 10-year paper rising 0.07% to 4.406% and two-year paper gaining 0.21% to 3.862%.