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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is having a decent day of trading on the markets this Tuesday so far, nicely countering yesterday’s shaky start to the trading week. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is up a healthy 0.75% at 7,347 points.

But let’s dive a little deeper and check out the ASX 200 shares topping the share market’s volume charts this afternoon, according to investing.com.

3 most traded ASX 200 shares by volume on Tuesday

Santos Ltd (ASX: STO)

Santos is first up today. This ASX 200 energy share has seen a hefty 9.82 million of its shares find new homes so far this Tuesday. With no news or announcements out of the company thus far, we can probably assume that this elevated volume is the result of the movements in the Santos share price itself. Some speculation regarding potential divestment of assets may also be contributing. Santos shares are currently up a pleasing 1.3% so far today to $6.19 a share.

Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS)

ASX 200 lithium producer Pilbara is our next cab off the rank. Pilbara has had a sizeable 39.88 million of its shares bought and sold thus far today. This has no doubt been initiated by the rather large share price plunge Pilbara has endured today. This company’s shares are presently down a very nasty 11.2% at $2.45 each. This looks to be related to the company’s production and shipping guidance downgrade it unloaded on investors this morning.

Imugene Limited (ASX: IMU)

Our final and most traded ASX 200 share thus far today is biotech company Imugene. Imugene has had a whopping 50.96 million of its shares swap owners so far on Tuesday. Despite this massive volume, there’s not much going on with this company today. There has been no major (or any) news or announcements out of the company.

However, the Imugene share price is having what could be described as a pretty solid day of trading. Its shares are currently up a robust 1.2% at 42 cents each. This move may have sparked so many shares to be traded today. Or perhaps there were one or two unusually large trades. Whatever the reason, Imugene is, at least for now, the ASX 200’s most traded share this Tuesday.

The post Here are the 3 most heavily traded ASX 200 shares this Tuesday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Why Afterpay, Humm, Namoi Cotton, and Pilbara Minerals shares are falling
• Santos (ASX:STO) share price jumps on divestment speculation
• Why is the Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) share price crashing 10% lower today?
• ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) midday update: Magellan rebounds, Pilbara Minerals sinks
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Tuesday

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO is back on form and on course to record a strong gain. In afternoon trade, the benchmark index is up 0.75% to 7,346.6 points.

Four ASX shares that have failed to follow the market higher today are listed below. Here’s why they are tumbling:

Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT)

The Afterpay share price is down 2% to $82.60. This is an improvement from earlier in the day when the payments company’s shares tumbled to a new 52-week low of $80.21. This followed another heavy decline from the Square share price overnight. This decline devalued the takeover offer that Afterpay shareholders voted in favour of last week.

Humm Group Ltd (ASX: HUM)

The Humm share price is down 5% to 86.5 cents. This appears to have been driven by profit taking after a strong gain on Monday. Investors were buying the financial services company’s shares after it revealed that it has received approaches from third parties to acquire all or part of it. No further details were provided but management intends to engage with the would-be suitors.

Namoi Cotton Ltd (ASX: NAM)

The Namoi Cotton share price is down 10% to 46 cents. Investors have been selling this cotton producer’s shares after it warned that 2022 could be a difficult year. Namoi Cotton advised that cotton growing areas in NSW and Queensland have experienced flooding in November and December which may result in a loss of crops.

Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS)

The Pilbara Minerals share price is down 11% to $2.46 after downgrading its production guidance. The lithium miner revealed that delays have been experienced with both the Ngungaju Plant re-start and Pilgan Plant Improvements Project. As a result, its FY 2022 concentrate production guidance has been downgraded to 400,000 to 450,000 dmt from 460,000 to 510,000 dmt.

The post Why Afterpay, Humm, Namoi Cotton, and Pilbara Minerals shares are falling appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Why is the Zip (ASX:Z1P) share price outperforming Afterpay today?
• Why is the Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) share price crashing 10% lower today?
• ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) midday update: Magellan rebounds, Pilbara Minerals sinks
• These 3 ASX 200 shares are topping the volume charts on Monday
• Why Australian Clinical Labs, Humm, Neometals, and Viva Energy are rising

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia owns and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Humm Group Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Regional Express Holdings Ltd (ASX: REX) share price is having a tough start to the week.

The airline’s shares are down 1.07% at the time of writing to $1.39. That means they are now down 1.77% on Friday’s closing price.

Let’s delve into what might be impacting the company’s shares this week.

Survey reveals travel fears

The Regional Express share price may be falling amid wider market Omicron fears and border closure threats impacting travel.

One clue may lay in a survey released this week on the summer travel plans of Australians.

Four out of five Australians have either cancelled or are unsure about their summer holiday travel plans, Tourism and Transport Australia found.

Meanwhile, one in two people has no confidence about travelling interstate.

The Regional Express share price fall comes amid the company completing its first flight from Sydney to Brisbane on Monday afternoon. The company first informed the market of this flight route in November.

The airline is now flying three times a day between the two cities on Monday to Friday and twice a day on weekends.

Commenting on the news, Rex Airlines deputy chairman John Sharp said:

This is a great way to end what has been an extraordinary year for both Rex and the whole aviation industry.

Despite the obvious difficulties I am extremely proud of what we have been able to achieve. It’s always nice to prove the sceptics wrong and the big plans we have for 2022 means next year promises to be even more exciting.

It’s not been all bad news for travel shares this week though. The Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) share price is currently up 0.84% to $4.82 after closing flat yesterday.

Regional Express share price recap

The Regional Express share price has plunged 29% in the past 12 months and 32% year to date. During the past month, the company’s shares have dropped by more than 6% and 3% in the past week.

Rex Airlines has a market capitalisation of roughly $154 million based on its current share price.

The post What’s impacting the Regional Express (ASX:REX) share price this week? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Why Afterpay, Humm, Namoi Cotton, and Pilbara Minerals shares are falling
• Why did the Step One (ASX:STP) share price rocket 10% today?
• Why is the Telix (ASX:TLX) share price jumping 8% today?
• Why Australian Clinical Labs, Magellan, Sandfire, and Telix shares are rising
• Tesserent (ASX:TNT) share price slides despite Vocus deal

The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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It’s been a wild and exciting day of trading for the Step One Clothing Ltd (ASX: STP) share price. Step One shares are currently trading at $2.41 each, up a healthy 6.64% on yesterday’s close. But earlier in the trading day, this ASX small-cap share hit an intra-day high of $2.49 a share. That put the Step One share price up just a tad over 10% at the time.

So why have shares of this clothing company been so hot this Tuesday?

Well, let’s get this out of the way. It’s not clear. Oddly for such a big move, there has been no official news or major announcement out of the company today. In fact, we haven’t had any ASX announcements from this company since 2 November.

Step One steps too low?

But that was just a day after Step One actually underwent its initial public offering (IPO). Yes, Step One IPOed back on 1 November. As we reported at the time, Step One’s IPO resulted in the company raising $81.3 million from the placement of its shares at a price of $1.53 each. Its IPO was a lucrative event, with Step One shares rising roughly 86% after just two days of trading, netting its founder Greg Taylor a paper profit of a cool $150 million.

But after an initial few weeks of success that saw Step One shares top out at $3.13 each by 19 November, the company has come back to earth somewhat. Today’s share pricing puts Step One at around 20% below that all-time high, even after the healthy jump we have seen today.

But in its short life so far, Step One has already impressed some ASX investing experts. As we covered late last month, broker Morgans likes what it sees at Step One. This broker rated the company as a ‘buy’, with a 12-month share price target of $3.20. Morgans likes the fact that Step One has unabashed global ambitions, and is watching the company’s US rollout keenly.

Just before the start of December, my Fool colleague Tony also went through Wilson Asset Management analyst Shaun Weick’s bullish views on Step One. Mr Weick pointed to the company’s plans to expand into both sporting and women’s clothing and is also excited about the company’s global expansion plans.

So perhaps some of this sentiment has finally gotten through to investors, who just yesterday would have watched Step One sink to a new post-IPO low of $2.18 a share.

Whatever the reason for today’s share price gains, it’s certainly a great day to own Step One shares. 

The post Why did the Step One (ASX:STP) share price rocket 10% today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• 2 ASX shares only just starting their growth
• Morgans names 2 exciting ASX small cap shares to buy

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: TLX) share price is continuing its good run this week amid a company announcement on its study to treat bladder cancer.

The biopharmaceutical company has informed investors it has delivered its first dose to a patient in a Phase 1 study investigating non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

At the time of writing, the Telix share price is at $8.04, an 8.65% jump on yesterday’s close. Earlier, it reached a high of $8.10.

A first step in cancer study

Telix updated the market on its targeted alpha therapy candidate TLX250-CDx for bladder cancer. The therapy is designed to target a receptor overexpressed in many solid tumours, including urologic malignancies.

The current study is being conducted in Nantes with Telix’s French-based partner Atonco. It will trial the therapy on 6 patients over 12 months.

NMIBC accounts for around 75-85% of new bladder cancer diagnoses. Bladder cancer is the sixth most common form of cancer for men and the tenth most common cancer worldwide

Telix is hoping its product will deliver “high amounts of energy” to cancer tissue whilst also decreasing the risk of damage to healthy cells, making radiation treatment more effective.

In July 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Breakthrough Therapy (BT) designation for TLX250-CDx in the fight against kidney cancer.

Telix’s chief medical officer Dr Colin Hayward said the company was looking to extend TLX250-CDx’s development for numerous cancer types where there is “unmet medical need”.

Cancer treatment is not Telix’s only project. Just yesterday, the Telix share price gained more than 7% as it announced that the US Food and Drug Agency had approved its prostate cancer imaging product Illuccix.

In other company news this morning, Telix also announced it would cease a number of its securities due to “expiry of option or other convertible security without exercise or conversion”.

In all, the company ceased more than 1 million securities, including various option and rights shares.

Telix share price snapshot

The Telix share price has shot up an impressive 101% over the last 12 months.

Telix has a market capitalisation of more than $2.2 billion with just over 285 million shares issued.

The post Why is the Telix (ASX:TLX) share price jumping 8% today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Why Australian Clinical Labs, Magellan, Sandfire, and Telix shares are rising
• What’s with the Telix (ASX:TLX) share price yo-yo today?
• What’s the outlook for ASX biotech shares in 2022?
• Why Grange, Iluka, Perpetual, and Telix shares are rising today
• Here’s why the Telix (ASX:TLX) share price is falling today

The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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In afternoon trade, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is on course to record a strong gain. At the time of writing, the benchmark index is up 0.75% to 7,346.6 points.

Four ASX shares that are climbing more than most today are listed below. Here’s why they are racing higher:

Australian Clinical Labs Ltd (ASX: ACL)

The Australian Clinical Labs share price is up a sizeable 11% to $5.56. This morning the pathology services provider upgraded its earnings guidance for the first half. Thanks largely to strong demand for COVID-19 testing, Australian Clinical Labs’ net profit after tax (NPAT) is expected to come in at between $116.3 million and $128 million during the half. At the mid-point, this represents a 35% increase over its previous first half NPAT guidance of $86.3 million to $94.9 million.

Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MFG)

The Magellan share price is up 3% to $20.27. Investors may have been buying this fund manager’s shares on the belief that they were oversold on Monday after a 30% decline following the loss of a major contract. Alternatively, short sellers could be buying shares to close out their positions.

Sandfire Resources Ltd (ASX: SFR)

The Sandfire share price is up 4% to $6.36. This morning analysts at UBS slapped a buy rating and $8.00 price target on this copper producer’s shares. The broker is a fan of Sandfire’s acquisition of MATSA and sees a pathway for the company to achieve copper production of greater than 150kt per annum.

Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: TLX)

The Telix share price has jumped 8% to $8.02. This morning Bell Potter retained its speculative buy rating and lifted its price target on this biopharmaceutical company’s shares to $9.65. The broker made the move in response to Telix gaining US FDA approval for its Illuccix product. Bell Potter notes that this puts the company in a position to launch the product in the US next month.

The post Why Australian Clinical Labs, Magellan, Sandfire, and Telix shares are rising appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) midday update: Magellan rebounds, Pilbara Minerals sinks
• Magellan (ASX:MFG) shares just lost $1.8b of market cap. What now?
• Why the Australian Clinical Labs (ASX:ACL) share price is up 10% to a record high
• Why Australian Clinical Labs, Humm, Neometals, and Viva Energy are rising
• Why Audio Pixels, CIMIC, Magellan, and St Barbara shares are tumbling

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro owns TELIXPHARM DEF SET. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Australian Clinical Labs Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Tesserent Ltd (ASX: TNT) share price is falling wayside during mid afternoon trade. This comes regardless of the fact that the internet security services company announced a partnership with Vocus Group Ltd (ASX: VOC).

At the time of writing, Tesserent shares are fetching for 16.2 cents apiece, down 1.82%.

Tesserent strengthens cybersecurity solutions

Investors appear unfazed by the company’s latest release, sending the Tesserent share price in negative territory.

In a statement to the ASX, Tesserent advised it has secured a cybersecurity partnership with international telecommunications company, Vocus.

Founded in 2008, Vocus is a specialist fibre and network solutions provider that operates in Australia and New Zealand. The company has over 30,000 kilometres of fibre network that is purpose-built and managed for business and government.

Under the deal, Tesserent will initially focus on delivering its Cyber 360 solutions to Vocus’ 5,000-strong enterprise and government clients. This includes essential 8 programs, testing/assurance/red team services, and scaling up key security product controls and managed security services.

Recently, Tesserent cemented its leading position in the federal government cybersecurity solutions space with the acquisition of two businesses.

The new additions are expected to immediately integrate into Tesserent’s ecosystem, particularly its North Security business. This area is tasked with leading the company’s federal government team by delivering large multi-year projects.

Tesserent CEO, Kurt Hansen commented:

We are extremely pleased to be able to partner with Vocus on their cybersecurity initiatives with their enterprise clients. Increasingly critical infrastructure controls are coming under cyber-attack and we look forward to working with Vocus to improve their clients’ cybersecurity resilience.

This partnership will enhance Tesserent’s profitable organic growth through access to clients that are currently not being addressed by our current client facing team.

About the Tesserent share price

Adding to today’s losses, the Tesserent share price has dropped by more than 50% in the last 12 months. A stark contrast to when the company’s shares reached an all-time high of 44 cents at the beginning of January.

Based on today’s prices, Tesserent presides a market capitalisation of roughly $200.22 million and has approximately 1.21 billion shares outstanding.

The post Tesserent (ASX:TNT) share price slides despite Vocus deal appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Why has the Tesserent (ASX:TNT) share price tumbled 12% in a month?
• Tesserent (ASX:TNT) share price leaps 10% on acquisition news

Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The IGO Limited (ASX: IGO) share price is struggling today, down 2.07% to $10.65.

The mining and resources giant is facing resistance as investors respond to a company update on the Burracoppin gold project. This includes the results from the Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) co-funded diamond drilling at the Crossroads prospect.

Moho Resources Ltd (ASX: MOH) and IGO formed an unincorporated 70:30 joint venture (JV) to explore the site. Under the agreement, if warranted, the JV may extend to developing and mining and IGO can convert its 30% stake to a 10% free carried interest.

Burracoppin is located in the WA wheat belt, about 22km west of the Edna May gold mine. Let’s take a look at what the JV released today.

What was announced today?

The IGO share price is falling after an update was provided by Moho regarding the exploration status of Crossroads. Moho outlined the diamond drilling program has been completed, with 4 diamond holes drilled totaling 630 metres.

Three holes had numerous Intercepts of gold more than 0.1g/t Au and confirmed previous reverse-circulation (RC) drilling outtakes.

Moho summarised that three positive gold assays from diamond drilling. These included 0.89m @ 0.79g/t Au from 75.91m, 1m @ 0.49 g/t Au from 29.2m, and 1m @ 0.41 g/t Au from 55.5m.

In addition, another 3 holes intersected significant silver mineralisation, including 2.4m @ 8.50 g/t Ag from 12.4m.

Moho says consultant geochemist Richard Carver of GCXplore Pty Ltd has reviewed the data generated by drilling programs to date and made several observations about the gold prospectivity around the Crossroads prospect.

For instance, Carver surmised that drilling to date covers only part of the strongest auger gold anomaly. He also found there is weak auger gold anomalism about 400m to the west of the drilled area, and that the anomalism extends south from the drilled area to the large magnetic high about 1,200m southeast of the drilled area.

Carver also concluded that northwest of the drilled area no gold anomaly has been detected due to limited soil data. He also found the anomalous gold trend may still exist as “it is likely that the cover is thickening as the system drains in that direction”.

Finally, Carver noted that two gold zones are evident at the crossroads prospect, with a broader north-south striking western zone of at least 50m width of mineralised bedrock present with shallow easterly dips.

Next up, Moho and IGO under the JV will undertake follow-up air-core drilling around the Crossroads prospect.

IGO share price summary

Despite some recent turbulence, the IGO share price has still boasted an outsized 68% return in the last 12 months. It has also rallied around 66% this year to date.

It has reached a series of all-time highs in the past month and is well ahead of its benchmarks across longer-term time frames.

The post Why is the IGO (ASX:IGO) share price in the doldrums today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Top brokers name 3 ASX shares to sell next week
• Here’s why the IGO (ASX:IGO) share price is not going anywhere today
• Is the IGO (ASX:IGO) share price a better buy than Allkem?
• Why Hipages, IGO, Talga, and Vulcan shares are storming higher
• IGO (ASX:IGO) share price storms higher on broker upgrade

The author has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Poseidon Nickel Ltd (ASX: POS) share price is riding waves on Tuesday after the company released an update on the restart of its Black Swan Project.

It follows yesterday’s news detailing positive assay results from the project’s Silver Swan Channel. Those results spurred the company’s stock to surge 8.7% to close at 10 cents on Monday.

Today, the Poseidon Nickel share price has been wobbling. It reached as high as 10.5 cents and as low as 9.9 cents during intraday trade.

Right now, it’s flat with its previous close.

Let’s take a look at today’s news from the nickel explorer and developer.

Poseidon Nickel share price wobbles on Black Swan update

The Poseidon Nickel share price is on the move on Tuesday after the company’s managing director and CEO, Peter Harold noted that drilling programs at the Black Swan Project continue to show positive results.

Harold stated that the results show the potential for an increase in the mining inventory for the restart.

So far, drilling has flagged the potential for more consistent metallurgically favourable serpentinite mineralisation in a disseminated zone below the existing pit.

Additionally, knowledge of the project’s resources helps to build an understanding of its mineralogy and metallurgy, thereby allowing the company to refine its ore blending strategy.

The ‘Feed the Mill‘ strategy employed by Poseidon Nickel to restart the project is also continuing nicely.

The strategy is based on feeding the 1.1 million tonnes per annum processing circuit from a combination of feed sources to maximise nickel units produced.

The company has now approved studies on dewatering the Black Swan open pit – set to begin in 2022. It has also given the okay to work on getting environmental and mine approvals.

On top of that, it’s started looking into hiring project management leaders, getting approvals for site-based accommodation, and grid power allocation.

After the company finishes the current drilling programs at the project’s Silver Swan Channel and BSD, and receives assay results, updated mine studies, and indicative offtake terms, a further internal Preliminary Economic Assessment will be completed.

Poseidon Nickel expects to make a final investment decision on the project’s restart in July 2022. After that, commissioning is scheduled for the first quarter of 2023. That will lead to the Bankable Feasibility Study, due in June 2022.

No doubt, many eyes will be on the Poseidon Nickel share price then. Right now, the company’s stock is 42% higher than it was at the start of 2021.

The post Why is the Poseidon Nickel (ASX:POS) share price hitting stormy seas today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Here’s why the Poseidon Nickel (ASX:POS) share price is climbing 8% today
• Poseidon Nickel (ASX:POS) share price booms 17% on ‘exceptional’ drilling results

Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) share price is on fire today. Zip shares are currently up a healthy 2.18% at $4.22 each. But earlier this morning, it was a different story. Yes, Zip had a rather rough start to this Tuesday’s trading day. This buy now, pay later (BNPL) company opened at $4.10 a share this morning before falling all the way down to $4.06 (down more than 1%) shortly after market open. But then, investors started buying, pushing the Zip share price up to the level we now see.

This is a rather strange move for Zip. Not because the broader market is doing anything too different. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is currently up 0.41% today. But because of what is happening to the Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price this Tuesday.

As many investors would be aware, Afterpay and Zip are both peers and rivals in the BNPL space. Although Afterpay has long been the king of the hill when it comes to BNPL shares, Zip has been a strong silver medallist for years now.

So it goes without saying that these two ASX BNPL shares often move in tandem with each other. But not today.

In contrast to Zip’s strong upwards move, Afterpay shares are getting hammered today. The BNPL pioneer is currently down a nasty 2.66% to $81.66 at the time of writing. What’s more, Afterpay hit a low of $80.21 earlier this morning. That was a new 52-week low for this company, bringing it down to levels not seen since October 2020.

So why are Zip shares outperforming its rival Afterpay so dramatically today?

Zip share price zips past Afterpay

Well, one possible answer could be the performance of Afterpay’s soon-to-be new owner. Back in August, Afterpay announced it was to be acquired by the US payments giant Block Inc (NYSE: SQ), formerly known as Square. This deal, which has now been green-lighted by both Block and Afterpay shareholders, will see Afterpay investors receive 0.375 shares of Block for every share of Afterpay owned. As such, providing the deal eventually goes ahead, investors are now likely valuing Afterpay more on what the Block share price does than on Afterpay’s business fundamentals.

Well, last night, Block shares got massacred. The company closed a nasty 5.34% lower this morning (our time) at US$158.30 a share after touching a new 52-week low of its own (US$157.57). As such, the value of that 0.375 of a Block share that Afterpay owners are being promised also just slid 5.34%. So it’s perhaps no surprise then that we see such a steep fall in the Afterpay share price today.

But Zip, having no pending takeover offer on the table to weigh its own shares down, is instead enjoying a solid day of gains on the ASX boards today. As are, mind you, many other ASX tech shares. These include Xero Limited (ASX: XRO), up 2.3%. As well as Appen Ltd (ASX: APX), up 2%.

At the current Zip share price, this ASX 200 BNPL share has a market capitalisation of $2.48 billion.

The post Why is the Zip (ASX:Z1P) share price outperforming Afterpay today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) midday update: Magellan rebounds, Pilbara Minerals sinks
• Why has the short interest in Zip (ASX:Z1P) shares fallen in December?
• These are the 10 most shorted ASX shares
• These were the worst performers on the ASX 200 last week
• Why Afterpay, Corporate Travel, Dubber, and EML shares are falling

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen owns Block, Inc. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO, Appen Ltd, Block, Inc., Xero, and ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia owns and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO, Appen Ltd, and Xero. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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