The energy majors lost ground on Tuesday (3 February) as oil prices tumbled after US President Donald Trump agreed to hold off on taxing Mexican imports for one month.
Meanwhile, OPEC is sticking to its plan to gradually phase out previously implemented production cuts starting in April, ignoring Trump’s calls for moves to lower prices.
OPEC plans to bring back online 120,000 barrels per day every month from April until production is back at 2.1 million barrels per day by late 2026. However, the start date has been pushed out three times already due to fears of oversupply.
The S&P/ASX 200 reversed its early gains to close down 5.4 points at 8,374 points. The index has lost 0.3% in the past five days, and is 2.25% off its 52-week high.
Six of the 11 sectors ended the day in the green. The materials sector held onto its gains to advance 1.2%. Energy fell 0.68% and industrials slipped 0.34%.
Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS) decreased 0.93% to $24.35 and Santos (ASX:STO) closed down 0.7% at $7.
South32 (ASX:S32) climbed 2.11% to $3.38, Fortescue (ASX:FMG) rallied 1.8% to $18.62, Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) advanced 1.6% to $116.76 and Alcoa (ASX:AAI) rose 1.59% to $55.47.
Red Hawk Mining (ASX:RHK) announced today Fortescue had obtained a majority 66.23% stake in the junior iron ore explorer since tabling its off-market takeover offer towards the end of January.
If Fortescue reaches 75%, the company will increase its offer price from $1.05 to $1.20 per Red Hawk share.
The S&P/ASX200 is Australia’s leading share market index and contains the top 200 ASX-listed companies in terms of market capitalisation, and accounts for about 80% of the country’s equity market. The index is designed to measure the performance of the 200 largest index-eligible stocks listed on the ASX by float-adjusted market capitalisation.
It is recognised as the institutional investable benchmark in the country.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: ASX & iStock
