In late morning trade, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is on course to record another decent gain. At the time of writing, the benchmark index is up 0.5% to 6,919.6 points.
Four ASX shares that are climbing more than most today are listed below. Here's why they are racing higher:
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EML Payments Ltd (ASX: EML)
The EML share price is up almost 10% to $5.64 after announcing the acquisition of Sentenial Limited for up to 110 million euros (~A$170.7 million). Sentenial is a leading European Open Banking and Account-to-Account (A2A) payments provider, utilising a cloud-native, API-first, full stack enterprise grade payment platform. Its customers include 4 of the top 7 banks in the United Kingdom and some of the largest merchant acquirers in Europe.
NextDC Ltd (ASX: NXT)
The NextDC share price has risen 2.5% to $11.30. This appears to have been driven by a broker note out of Goldman Sachs this morning. According to the note, the broker has added the data centre operator's shares to its conviction buy list and lifted the price target on them to $15.00. The broker has been holding meetings with industry participants. These meetings have collectively reinforced its positive view on NextDC.
Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN)
The Qantas share price is up almost 4% to $5.46. As with NextDC, this gain appears to have been driven partly by a broker note out of Goldman Sachs. In response to the ANZ travel bubble news, Goldman reiterated its buy rating and $6.38 price target on the airline operator's shares. The broker points out that New Zealand accounted for ~13% of Qantas' international passengers prior to COVID-19.
Recce Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: RCE)
The Recce share price has jumped 6% to $1.04. This follows the release of an update on its sinusitis infection treatment. According to the release, Special Access Scheme notification has been made to the Therapeutic Goods Administration by a medical practitioner following the successful treatment of a patient with RECCE 327 (R327), via nasal passage, against multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) sinusitis infection.
