Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said late Monday that Melbourne would move into the "third stage" of reopening after the state recorded zero new COVID-19 cases for the first time since June.
From midnight Tuesday, there will be no restrictions on people leaving home, however, the 25-km limit will remain in place. All retail businesses will reopen. Meanwhile, Restaurants, hotels, cafes and bars will be able to host up to 50 patrons outdoors, 20 patrons inside.
However, the announcement has done little to lift the local share market, which was dragged down by losses from banks, miners, tech stocks and retailers. On the other side, Coca-Cola Amatil surged 16.28 percent after receiving a takeover bid worth 9.3 billion Australian dollars (6.62 billion U.S. dollars) from Coca-Cola European Partners.
In the financial space, the big banks dipped with Commonwealth Bank down (0.27 percent), National Australia Bank down (1.02 percent), Westpac Bank down (0.43 percent) and ANZ down (0.51 percent). Mining stocks sank with BHP down (0.75 percent), Rio Tinto down (0.78 percent), Fortescue Metals down (0.66 percent) and gold miner Newcrest down (0.62 percent).
The country's oil and gas producers made firm gains with Oil Search up (0.69 percent), Santos up (0.38 percent) and Woodside Petroleum up (0.76 percent). Australia's largest supermarkets varied with Coles down (0.47 percent), and Woolworths up (0.05 percent). Meanwhile telecommunications giant Telstra surged (1.10 percent), the national carrier Qantas jumped (0.66 percent) and biomedical firm CSL lifted (0.40 percent).
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