ASX falls; City Chic soars on sales, Syrah’s Tesla offtake weighs

The Australian sharemarket opened little changed on Monday amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty following US President Donald Trump's weekend moves to impose tariffs on several European nations and his reported interest in Greenland.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 4.30 points to 8899.6 at 10.18am AEDT , with five of the 11 sectors trading lower. Wall Street was closed for the Martin Luther King Jr holiday, limiting guidance from global markets.
Trump announced 10 per cent tariffs on several European countries, threatening to raise them to 25 per cent in June, to pressure the European Union over Greenland.
"Trump's actions over the weekend have inflamed geopolitical risks while also reintroducing trade uncertainty," Capital.com senior market analyst Kyle Rodda said. "The response in the markets could be interesting because there's sometimes the tendency amongst market participants to call Trump's bluff."
Technology was the weakest as WiseTech Global fell 2.2 per cent and Life360 continued recent heavy selling as it lost a further 4.2 per cent. NextDC added 1.7 per cent after a development application for its M4 Melbourne Data Centre, located at Port Melbourne in Victoria, received the necessary planning permit from the Victorian minister for planning.
The major banks weighed, led by ANZ as it fell 0.6 per cent, while Commonwealth Bank and Westpac lost 0.5 per cent and National Australia Bank by 0.3 per cent.
Materials were flat as BHP fell 0.2 per cent following strong gains in the past week, off the back of record gains in a number of metals. Lithium miners were low as the key battery-making materials rose to their highest since 2023. PLS fell 1.1 per cent and Liontown by 2.8 per cent. Lynas Rare Earths rose 3 per cent as trade data showed China's exports dropped in December.
Stocks in focus
City Chic Collective jumped 7.1 per cent after reporting preliminary first-half revenue of $69.2 million, down 0.5 per cent on the previous corresponding period. Growth in ANZ was offset by weaker sales in the Americas, which plunged 31.4 per cent as the company deliberately cut inventory purchases in response to tariff volatility.
Catalyst Metals soared 5.6 per cent after it reported a new high-grade gold discovery below its Cinnamon Resource on the Plutonic Gold Belt in Western Australia. It said that the discovery strengthens its 10-year production plan, which targets growth of 200,000 ounces per year.
NRW Holdings gained 1.2 per cent after its subsidiary, Golding Contractors, signed a $750 million, 5.5-year, mining services agreement with TEC Coal for the Stanwell Meandu Mine in Queensland's Burnett Region.
Syrah Resources fell 4.9 per cent after it said it had secured more time to fix an alleged breach of its offtake deal with Tesla, extending the "cure period" to March 16.
Biotech company PolyNovo has reported unaudited first-half FY26 group sales of $68.2 million, up 26 per cent on the same time last year. Shares firmed 1.7 per cent.

Sumber : AFR