Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 commenced trading on a sluggish note, mirroring the overnight losses experienced on Wall Street.
The S&P/ASX 200 index saw a drop of 31 points or 0.4% in the first 30 minutes of Wednesday's trade. This downward trend was primarily driven by a 1.6% decline in the technology sector. The ASX All Ordinaries index also suffered a similar 0.4% drop.
The mining company IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO), which started trading ex-dividend today, experienced a 5.6% decrease in its share price.
On the brighter side, Dreadnought Resources Ltd (ASX:DRE) witnessed a 5.7% boost in its shares, following the announcement of high-grade neodymium and praseodymium from its project based in Western Australia.
Shares of Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND), a leading Australian engineering group, rose by 1.3%. The company recently secured a $100 million contract from Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX:LTR) to construct a wet plant at its Kathleen Valley Lithium Project in Western Australia.
Pact Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:PGH), a specialist packaging company, saw its shares increase by 5.2%. This uptick followed the news that billionaire businessman Raphael Geminder plans to privatize the currently struggling packaging manufacturer. Geminder's Kin Group, which already holds a 50% stake in Pact Group, has proposed a 68¢ per share off-market takeover bid for the remaining shares. This offer is almost identical to the most recent closing price of 67.5¢ per share on Tuesday. The shares were last traded at 71¢.