In afternoon trade, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is on course to record its second successive daily decline. At the time of writing, the benchmark index is down 0.5% to 7,450.2 points.
Four ASX shares that are not letting that hold them back are listed below. Here's why they are charging higher:
Ardent Leisure Group Ltd (ASX: ALG)
The Ardent Leisure share price is up 7% to $1.39. This follows news that the entertainment company has signed an agreement to sell its Main Event business in the United States for A$1.1 billion. Ardent plans to return approximately A$430 million or A$0.90 per share to shareholders following completion of the transaction. The company will now be solely focused on its Australian Theme Parks business.
GQG Partners Inc (ASX: GQG)
The GQG Partners share price is up 5% to $1.47. Investors have been buying the fund manager's shares following the release of its latest funds under management (FUM) update. GQG had a decent month, with its FUM growing 3.5% over the period to US$92.9 billion. This brought its quarterly net inflows to US$3.4 billion.
Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MFG)
The Magellan share price has jumped 11.5% to $17.26. This also follows the release of a FUM update. According to the release, Magellan reported another $1.1 billion of net fund outflows for the period between 11 March and 31 March. However, this is a big improvement on recent trends, which investors appear to believe could be a sign that the worst is now over. Furthermore, thanks to favourable market movements, Magellan's total FUM actually increased by $0.9 billion
Melbana Energy Ltd (ASX: MAY)
The Melbana Energy share price has surged 26% higher to 17 cents. This morning the energy explorer revealed that a significant oil pay has been defined in the Marti structure. The release also highlights that the volume of oil in place from the first (Amistad) structure has been independently estimated to contain 2.5 billion barrels of oil in place with a combined prospective resource of 119 million barrels of oil.
