Aussie shares flat at midday after Iran missile strike

The local share market is treading water at midday as the world waits to see if the conflict in the Middle East spirals into all-out war.

At noon AEST on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 2.0 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 8,210.9, while the broader All Ordinaires was up 1.0 point, or 0.01 per cent, to 8,482.9.

Moomoo analyst Jessica Amir said that traders had ducked for cover in a classic risk-off mode after Iran launched around 180 missiles at Israel overnight.

The US dollar, gold and oil rose while US equities dropped, especially tech stocks. Microsoft fell 2.3 per cent while defence contractor Lockheed Martin rose 3.6 per cent.

At midday eight of the ASX’s 11 sectors were lower, and energy, materials and utilities were higher.

Energy was the biggest gainer, up 2.6 per cent as Woodside added 3.3 per cent, Santos climbed 2.6 per cent and uranium developer Deep Yellow advanced 4.0 per cent.

Goldminers were also on the rise, with Evolution climbing 1.0 per cent, Newmont adding 1.7 per cent and Regis up 2.5 per cent.

Elsewhere in the mining sector, BHP had grown 1.5 per cent, Fortescue had advanced 1.3 per cent and Rio Tinto had added 0.6 per cent.

The big four banks were mostly lower, with NAB the biggest loser, down 0.5 per cent. ANZ was the outlier, flat at $30.16.

Insurance companies IAG, Suncorp and QBE were all up, by between 0.8 and 1.1 per cent.

The consumer discretionary sector had fallen 1.3 per cent with Wesfarmers 1.8 per cent lower and Webject Group dropping 4.3 per cent.

The tech sector was the worst performing at midday, down 1.4 per cent, with Xero dropping 2.5 per cent and Wisetech Global retreating 1.8 per cent.

But Bigtincan Holdings had soared 21.9 per cent to 19.5 cents after the sales enablement platform said it had received a competing takeover offer, this one from a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company.

It had already been considering a takeover offer from a US private equity firm, Vector Capital.

The Australian dollar was buying 69.02 US cents, from 69.28 US cents at Tuesday’s ASX close.