ASX closed lower; Kogan.com rallies on crypto entrance; Csl enters deal to acquire Vifor Pharma.

The Australian market recovered some of the morning losses in afternoon trade however still closed Tuesday?s session 0.01% lower or 0.9 points lower at 7378.40 as a 17% dive for Mesoblast and a 7.7% tumble for Woolworths weighed heavily on the market.

The tech sector losses extended into afternoon trade to close the session just shy of 0.5% lower as Afterpay shedding 4.08% and EML Payments losing 2.61% offset Nearmap?s 4.76% rally.

Bitcoin is trading 5.22% lower over the last 24-hours at US$46,533.74 at 5:30pm AEDT.

Online retailer, Kogan.com, rallied today after announcing its entrance into the crypto market through selling the internet domain name bitbuy.com, for US$1.5m to First Ledger, the parent company of Canadian cryptocurrency trading platform Bitbuy. Kogan.com also signed a deal to provide advertising and marketing support to the Bitbuy group when it expands into Australia.

Making headlines, Australian-based biotech giant Csl is in expansion mode after announcing it has entered into a definitive agreement to launch an all-cash public offer to acquire 100% of Swiss-based specialty pharmaceutical company, Vifor Pharma, shares for US$179.25/Vifor Pharma share. The US$12.3bn all-cash acquisition is to be funded through a combination of US$4.5bn fully underwritten placement, and US$6bn new debt and existing cash/undrawn facilities.

And Squid Game continues to make headlines as the hit Netflix series ranks number 1 for most-watched TV shows in 2021 with 142 million household views since it was released in September.