Opened up, ASX swung in the red as banks weigh

The Australian sharemarket swung into the red following a sell-off in the major banks after initially tracking a rally on Wall Street that was paced by the Dow Jones hitting an all-time record.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.4 per cent, or by 35.3 points to 8693.3 at around 11:10am AEDT . The benchmark initially opened up 21.8 points or 0.3 per cent to 8750 at the start of trade, tracking overnight news on Wall Street, the benchmark US S&P 500 energy index rose to its highest since March 2025, with heavyweights ExxonMobil and Chevron both surging.
Energy stocks jumped and led eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors as the index retook the 6900 point mark after a US military strike that captured deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Investors are betting that Washington's move against Venezuela's leadership would allow US firms access to the world's largest oil reserves. According to Reuters, US President Donald Trump's administration plans to meet with executives from US oil companies this week to discuss boosting Venezuelan production.
On the ASX, a sell-off in the heavyweight financials sector dragged the index into the red. All the major banks recorded losses, with Commonwealth Bank declining 2.5 per cent. Westpac dropped 2.2 per cent, ANZ 2.6 per cent and National Australia Bank 2.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, the materials sector was the best performer, up 1.8 per cent after copper touched $US13,000 a tonne for the first time, extending last year's scorching rally as mine outages and trade dislocations fuel concerns over supplies of the key industrial metal.
Benchmark futures rallied as much as 4.3 per cent in London. A strike at a key mine in Chile was just the latest supply disruption at a time of expanding global demand for the metal used in everything from data centres to car batteries.
The major mining giants with copper exposure were in the green, with BHP up 1.4 per cent and Rio Tinto adding 2 per cent.
Stocks in focus
Industrials conglomerate SGH Limited rallied 4 per cent after it confirmed it launched a bid with Nasdaq-listed Steel Dynamics to acquire and split up BlueScope Steel, the country's largest steelmaker. BlueScope surged 20 per cent.
In the latest announcement from the company, SGH said the offer to acquire BlueScope's shares for a wholly cash consideration of $30 per share represented a "compelling value proposition and highly attractive premium for BSL shareholders."
Engineering company Monadelphous edged up 0.5 per cent after winning a $175 million construction contract with BHP for the mining giant's car dumper project, located at Finucane Island in Port Hedland, Western Australia.
Location tracking app Life360 dropped 1.5 per cent even as the company said it reached more than 50 million monthly active users in the United States. In the dual-listed technology company's latest announcement, it said that scale puts Life360 as one of the largest and most engaged first-party networks of families in the US, placing it alongside platforms such as Netflix, Spotify and Pinterest.
With Reuters, Bloomberg

Sumber : AFR