As it happened: Banks fuel 1.8% ASX surge to three-week high – The Sydney Morning Herald

Investors are getting their head around the fact that monetary policy is going to remain accommodating for a long, long, long time, he said.

The 104-page statement revealed downgraded estimates for Australia suggesting the economy will not be strong enough to withstand an interest rate rise until at least 2023.

Mr Miller now expects the RBA to do more easing, which would be good for domestic banks. The banks share prices increased significantly amid low trading volumes on Monday. Commonwealth Bank shares gained 3.4 per cent to $73.98, National Australia Bank shares gained 3 per cent to $17.46, taking the stock back to where it was on the last day in July. Similarly, Westpac gained 3.3 per cent to $17.36 on below-average trading volumes, and ANZ Bank gained 2.7 per cent to $18.17.

Portfolio manager at Tribeca Investment Partners Jun Bei Liu said there was some optimism in the market thanks to Victorias lower COVID-19 infection numbers. The state remains in Stage 4 lockdown but on Monday recorded 322 infections, the lowest in two weeks.

Banks were sold off on fears the recession may last longer than expected, she added. The financial sector dropped 2.7 per cent last week and has been stuck in a trading range since June.

Property trusts and travel names did very well on Monday, Ms Liu added, with Scentre Group up 3.4 per cent to $1.99 and Webjet up 4.2 per cent to $3.24.

Among the consumer staples cohort Blackmores, Woolworths, and Coles enjoyed the best gains. The vitamin-maker gained 3.1 per cent to $74.50, Woolies gained 2.8 per cent to $40.04 and Coles was up 2.6 per cent to $18.85.

News Corp gained 6.5 per cent to a nearly-six months high of $20.81 after a flurry of analyst upgrades following last weeks results.

Utilities also out-performed on Monday with APA Group up 3 per cent to $11.44, Spark Infrastructure up 3.6 per cent to $2.31, and AusNet Services up 2 per cent to $1.83.

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As it happened: Banks fuel 1.8% ASX surge to three-week high - The Sydney Morning Herald

‘Help us save our little superhero’ -parents of boy (6) with rare cancer – Independent.ie

The parents of a six-year-old boy who is battling a rare form of cancer say they want to give their superhero son "a normal childhood".

ittle Auryn Phelan, from Malahide, Co Dublin - a massive fan of the Avengers superheroes - has endured 13 rounds of chemotherapy, two major surgeries, stem cell transplants and 14 rounds of radiotherapy.

As he nears the end of his treatment in Crumlin Children's Hospital, there is little disease left.

However, stage four neuroblastoma has an extremely high relapse rate and there are few treatment options if it returns. Tragically, survival rates are low.

His parents are now fundraising to get him a place on a clinical trial in the US.

"He has been surrounded by sadness, unspeakable horrors in hospital and endured medical procedure after procedure. We just want to give Auryn back a normal, healthy childhood," said his mum Trisha Gibbons.

"Aside from all the horrible procedures, he has missed out on so much of his childhood in the last year - the simple things that people take for granted have been denied to him.

LOVABLE

"Auryn is a gorgeous, energetic, funny, lovable boy who just wants to be a child and do what children do.

"This cancer journey has impacted Auryn and our family so much and has taken such a toll on both Auryn's physical and mental wellbeing," she added.

While the country endured lockdown, Auryn has had to face his own lockdown since he was diagnosed at just four-years-old.

That means no playdates with his friends and being unable to do simple, every-day things liking going to the shop.

"Due to his compromised immune system and constant risk of infection, we were required to keep him indoors, out of school and away from other children," said Trisha.

She and her husband Barry Phelan have set themselves the task of raising 375,000 by next January to enable Auryn to take part in a vaccine trial at the Slone Kettering Memorial Hospital in New York. All funds raised will go towards his treatment.

A GoFundMe appeal online has already raised more than 60,000.

"This vaccine is not available in Ireland, so our only option is to travel overseas.

"It has had very promising phase one results and we will do everything in our power to save our wonderful boy and get Auryn this treatment."

The family have set up the Auryn's Heroes fundraising campaign and are planning a series of events in Trisha's native Co Mayo and Barry's native Co Sligo as well as in Dublin.

They are also encouraging people to sign up for the virtual Vhi Virtual Women's Mini Marathon in October and run it in aid of Auryn's Heroes.

GENEROSITY

A separate 2km virtual Children's Superhero Walk, which will see children don their favourite superhero costumes and raise money, is also planned by Auryn's Heroes in October.

"We just want to give Auryn back a normal healthy childhood and put this journey behind both him and us for good. We are incredibly grateful to the people of our home counties of Mayo and Sligo, as well as our adopted home of Dublin, and indeed the country for the support and generosity you have shown to us," said Trisha.

Full details of how to donate and fundraise can be found at aurynsheroes.ie.

Irish Independent

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'Help us save our little superhero' -parents of boy (6) with rare cancer - Independent.ie

ASX Biotechs Surfing The Covid Story – FN Arena News

By Tim Boreham, Editor, The New Criterion

The ASX biotechs surfing the COVID-19 story

Normally investors shun speculative plays in times of market uncertainties, but thats not been the case with ASX-listed life sciences stocks across the drug, diagnostics and device sectors.

Naturally, the biotechs drawing a connection with fighting or detecting the virus spurious or otherwise have seen their valuations soar. Not that investor interest is limited to the Covid cluster, with capital raisings in the sector supported across the board.

A notable winner valuation-wise is Genetic Signatures ((GSS)), which markets molecular diagnostics tests for bacterial and viral conditions including superbugs, sexually transmitted diseases and norovirus (the number one plague of cruise ships before the coronavirus hopped on board).

Sold under the Easyscreen brand, the kits allow for rapid and accurate detection in large volumes. The tests take the genetic information of the targeted organism and change the genetic sequence to reduce the number of variables.

And, yes, the company is a COVID-19 story as well. Before the plague descended, the companys Easyscreen tests had not been able to distinguish Sars-cov-2 from say, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), but the company has devised a variant to do just that.

Reporting a 278% revenue surge to $4.7m for the June quarter, management called out demand for the COVID-19 tests as a growth driver.

Broker Bell Potter notes the global molecular diagnostics market was worth more than $US6bn in 2018 and is expected to grow to $US10bn by 2026.

The sectors also been a hotbed of acquisitions, such as Thermo Fishers recently-lobbed $US11.5bn offer for Dutch diagnostic group Qiagen and Danaher Corps $US4bn acquisition of US counterpart Cepheid in 2018.

We expect merger and acquisition activity to continue in the space and Genetic Signatures is strategically well positioned to attract interest as it further expands into key US and European markets and grows is product suite, Bell Potter says.

While Genetic Signatures is a case of building incremental revenues, stem cell developer Mesoblast ((MSB)) is on the cusp of company-moving announcements pertaining to several late-stage clinical trials and expected US approval of its therapy for graft versus host disease (a common affliction for transplant patients).

Naturally, most investors are focused on the COVID-19 trial which involves treating critical-care patients with its off the shelf therapy remestemcel-L (branded Ryoncil).

Most coronavirus victims die from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), an inflammatory condition caused by the immune systems response to the virus.

Mesoblast aimed to enrol 300 patients across 30 US hospitals a moving target given the disease epicentre is moving from region to region.

Nonetheless, the first patients were dosed in May, with an interim analysis is due when at least 30% of the patients have been treated for 30 days.

In other words, investors should soon know whether the company is on the cusp of a major treatment breakthrough.

And if thats not enough excitement, Mesoblast expects to announce results from two phase III studies: a 566-patient effort for chronic heart failure and a 404-patient trial for chronic lower back pain caused by disc degeneration.

Also in the stem-cell space, Cynata Therapeutics ((CYP)) is planning to carry out its own COVID-19 clinical trials not just in relation to ARDS, but sepsis and cytokine release syndrome (all causes of COVID-19 deaths).

The company is encouraged by pre-clinical modelling and has regulatory approval to carry out a trial.

The company planned to enrol 24 intensive care patients in NSW but perhaps it should refocus efforts south of the Murray.

It was fairly clear that Australias prevention measures effectively flattened the curve and we quickly ran out of available patients, Cynata chief Ross Macdonald said before the Victorian resurgence.

Tackling the cause of COVID-19 mortalities is one thing, but what if the risk of contracting the diseases could be more accurately predicted beyond the clinical factors of age and co-morbidities such as heart disease and diabetes?

That way, the denizens of locked down geographies such as Victoria could discard their masks and emerge from isolation.

Meanwhile, shares in kidney disease house Dimerix ((DXB)) last week soared on positive clinical results pertaining to a rare condition called focal segmental glomerusclerosis (FSGS).

But the drug candidate in question, DMX-200 has also been selected for appraisal in a global trial to treat ARDS, the common element between ARDS and FSGS being fibrosis.

Known in shorthand as REMAP-CAP, the World Health Organisation endorsed trial aims to enrol 7000 patients across more than 200 sites. DMX-200 is one of many potential therapies being looked at, but the beauty for Dimerix is the trial costs are paid the governments that are funding REMAP-CAP.

Changing tack, molecular diagnostics house Genetic Technologies ((GTG)) has filed a provisional patent for a genetics-based assessment of the risk of developing COVID-19.

Based on third-party genomic data from 1500 COVID-19 patients, the company intends to develop a prototype model to identify patients most likely to require hospitalisation should they contract the disease.

If and when a vaccine materialises, the genetic profiling could help to prioritise who gets jabbed first.

Hitherto known for its predictive breast cancer kits, Genetic Technologies has never matched its performance to its promises.

But US investors have been willing to support the stock, with the company raising $US5.1m in a placement via its Nasdaq listing.

Disclaimer: Under no circumstances have there been any inducements or like made by the company mentioned to either IIR or the author. The views here are independent and have no nexus to IIRs core research offering. The views here are not recommendations and should not be considered as general advice in terms of stock recommendations in the ordinary sense.

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ASX Biotechs Surfing The Covid Story - FN Arena News