It has been another subdued day of trade for the S&P/ASX 200 index. At lunch on Thursday the benchmark index is down 0.2% to 6,124.2 points.
Here's what has been happening on the market today:
Bank shares slide lower.
One of the biggest drags on the S&P/ASX 200 index on Thursday has been the big four banks once again. At lunch all four banks are in the red, with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) shares the worst performers with declines of 0.8% each.
ACCC will not oppose IPH's acquisition of Xenith IP.
The IPH Ltd (ASX: IPH) share price has dropped 0.5% despite the ACCC advising that it will not oppose its proposed acquisition of fellow intellectual property services company Xenith IP Group Ltd (ASX: XIP). The competition watchdog advised that most customers it consulted "did not express concerns."
Tech shares slide.
Australian tech shares including design software company Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) and accounting software company Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) have followed the lead of their U.S. counterparts and dropped lower today. The majority of the FAANG stocks sunk lower overnight, leading to the Nasdaq index falling 0.6%. S&P/ASX 200 Info Tech index is down 0.4% at the time of writing.
Pilbara Minerals storms higher.
The Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) share price has stormed over 4.5% higher after the lithium miner announced the declaration of commercial production at its Pilgangoora project. In addition to this, management advised that it has commenced a partnering process to interconnect uncommitted Stage 3 Pilgangoora offtake and is considering the sale of a minority interest of between 20% to 49% in its project.
Best and worst performers.
The best performer on the ASX 200 at lunch is the Pilbara Minerals share price with its 4.5% gain. Not far behind is the Pact Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: PGH) share price which has surged higher after announcing that its new CEO will be Mr Sanjay Dayal. He will join the company next week from BlueScope Steel Limited (ASX: BSL), where he held the position of Chief Executive, Building Products, Corporate Strategy and Innovation. Going the other way is the Eclipx Group Ltd (ASX: ECX) share price which is down 6.5%. Its shares rocketed higher yesterday, so profit taking may be weighing on them today.
