Markets Live: Banks help ASX fight global sell-off

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3:48pm

Zinc prices have fallen to a 10 month low on the London Metal Exchange on Monday, dropping 2 per cent to $US2858 a tonne, thanks to a strong rise in inventories.

Zinc on-warrent inventories rose 2,300 tonnes to 241,525 tonnes with supplies now up 83 per cent since the beginning of March.

Earlier this year, zinc prices hit their highest price in over a decade, when the commodity hit $US3,595.50 a tonne on February 15.

Since then, the price had declined by a fifth, largely due to the increase in inventories.

In a note, Alastair Munro of Marex Spectron said that the metal had seen growing speculative shorts on both the London Metal Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange.

3:31pm

Canaccord Genuity was in the market on Tuesday, seeking to raise $6 million for graphite play Talga Resources.

The offer price of 6.5¢ a share reflected a 5.8 per cent discount to the last close and a 4.7 per cent discount to the five-day volume weighted average price, according to terms sent to fund managers.

Talga owns the largest graphite resource in Europe "where substantial new demand for Li-ion batteries is located," the term sheet says.

Street Talk

3:03pm

We now have confirmation of the story we highlighted earlier regarding JCDecaux's takeover bid for APN Outdoor.

APN announced that they have entered into a Scheme Implementation Deed with JCDecaux.

The deal will see the French advertising giant acquaire 100 per cent of the issued share capital of APN Outdoor for a cash price of $6.70 per share.

The deal represents an 18 per cent premium to APN's closing price on June 19.

APN Outdoor is currently trading at $6.41

2:32pm

The weakening housing cycle has hit shares of building materials group CSR, which has tumbled 18 per cent in the past six weeks and eroded $530 million in sharemarket value.

Sean Fenton, portfolio manager at Tribeca Investment Partners, said the outlook for companies with a large exposure to residential construction was looking more difficult on a number of fronts. "It's not surprising to see it come off," he said, referring to the CSR share price.

Property markets had moved past their peak, banks were tightening up their lending criteria and foreign investment in housing markets had slowed. "None of that says anything other than property will keep coming off," Mr Fenton said.

"Prices are flat and falling".

Meanwhile, former Bunnings boss John Gillam says he won't be taking on any more public company directorships for at least 12 months as he prepares to chair his first annual meeting at building products group CSR on Wednesday.

1:50pm

A surprise hand-grenade has been lobbed at Gina Rinehart's bid for junior miner Atlas Iron, with a subsidiary of Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group alleging Redstone's bidder's statement contains "misleading statements and material omissions".

The Fortescue subsidiary, known as NCZ Investments, has sought interim orders from the Takeovers Panel that Redstone be restrained from dispatching its bidders statement, and that both Redstone and Mrs Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting be precluded from acquiring, directly or indirectly, any more shares in Atlas until "further and corrective disclosure is released".

1:29pm

Bitcoin is a fascinating development, its design is admirable but it's not money and as an investment it's highly risky, warned the Reserve Bank of Australia's head of payments policy Tony Richards.

As an economist who spends his time testing alternative payment methods, Mr Richards admitted to owning a "small amount" of bitcoin, making several transfers and even managed to find one Sydney cafe that will accept bitcoin for coffee.

"Indeed, even if one is quite sceptical of whether bitcoin will have a significant role in the economy in the future, I think it is hard to avoid some admiration for its design," he told the Australian Business Economists on Tuesday.