Goldminers surge but Aust share market down again

The local share market is down for another day as global turmoil in banking continues, with Swiss regulators approving the shotgun merger of UBS and Credit Suisse in an extraordinary government-brokered deal.

At noon AEDT on Monday, the S&P/ASX200 index was down 18.9 points, or 0.27 per cent, at 6,975.9, having recovered somewhat after being down as many as 60.6 points, or 0.86 per cent, in the first 10 minutes of trade.

The broader All Ordinaries was down 21.7 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 7,166.5.

In Europe, a weekend of emergency talks concluded with UBS buying its troubled rival Credit Suisse in a 3 billion Swiss franc ($A4.5 billion) acquisition – half the value the mega-bank was trading for on Friday.

Switzerland’s central bank, the government and regulators brokered the deal in a bid to stem financial contagion, even agreeing to change the law to allow it to go ahead without a shareholder vote.

Gold and cryptocurrencies were surging amid the uncertainty, with the precious metal changing hands at a one-year high of $US1,970 an ounce and Bitcoin at a nine-month high of $US27,900, up 23 per cent in the past seven days.

Every ASX sector was lower at midday except for mining, which was up 0.5 per cent on the strength of BHP and goldminers.

The Big Australian was up 0.2 per cent to $43.49, while Fortescue was down 0.5 per cent to $21.31 and Rio Tinto was up 0.4 per cent to $115.20.

Goldminers were shining, with Evolution up 10.7 per cent, Northern Star adding 8.2 per cent and Newcrest up 6.3 per cent.

The energy and consumer staples sectors were the biggest losers, with both down about 1.5 per cent. Woolworths was down 1.5 per cent and Woodside had dropped 1.4 per cent.

In the financial sector, the big banks were mixed, with ANZ down 0.4 per cent and NAB dropping 0.5 per cent, while Westpac and CBA had both added 0.3 per cent.

Insurance companies had another dour day as expectations fell for rate hikes.

Suncorp was down four per cent, QBE was down 2.3 per cent and IAG was down 2.9 per cent.

Healius was up 9.5 per cent to $3.045 and Australian Clinical Labs was up four per cent to $3.745 as ACL lobbed an unsolicited, all-scrip takeover offer at its larger rival. The deal would combine the No.3 and No.2 players in Australia’s pathology market, unseating Sonic as the largest domestic provider.