Northern Star will put a $5 billion bid across the table to acquire De Grey mining, as the gold price continues to sit near the top of its range.

MARKET WRAP:

• ASX200: up 0.14%, 8,447

• GOLD: $2,654 US/oz

• BITCOIN: $147,889 AUD
  
  

• A $5 billion bid for De Grey Mining by gold giant Northern Star Resources saw De Grey shares lift almost 30% to $1.97, while Northern Star went the other way, down 5.3% to $16.59.

• IGA operator Metcash lifted 2.2% to $3.19, despite underlying profit down by 5.5% to $134.6 million in first half earnings.

• Mineral Resources and IGO both up 6.2%.

• And a mixed day for the banks saw NAB up 0.5% & ANZ up 0.6%, while Commbank and Westpac both went backwards.

• GQG Partners slid by 14% to $2.02 after receiving a broker downgrade from UBS.

• Clarity Pharmaceuticals down 6.2% and Regis Healthcare down 3.4%

• While down more than 1% was Dexus, Charter Hall and Lovisa.

CURRENCY UPDATE:

• AUD/USD: 65.01 US cents

• AUD/GBP: 51.2 pence

• AUD/EUR: 61 Euro cents

• AUD/JPY: 97 Japanese yen

• AUD/NZD: 1.10 NZ dollars