Live: Local data centre giant suspends trading ahead of announcement

We have scant information, but it appears a neighbourhood dispute about power poles has influenced the trading halt of an ASX 100 company.

Data centre giant NEXTDC is valued at close to $7 billion.

Late yesterday it requested the stock exchange suspend trading in its shares.

The reason given is that the company "needs to provide a material update to the market on the impact of a delay to the supply of power at its M3 Melbourne data centre".

It says the board hasn't yet met to discuss the "power delay and its implications".

What's it about? Well we don't know for sure but it seems to be linked to civil disobedience in the 'burbs, as local residents fight back against the spread and impact of data centres.

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On Sanderson Street in Yarraville, in the inner-west of Melbourne, residents saw 15-metre high concrete power poles going up - replacing the standard 7-metre high wooden poles commonly seen in suburban streets.

They fought back.

On the day crews showed up in August to install the poles, residents left cars and bins out to block equipment needed to install them. Some taped notes on car windows explaining the protest action.

As Norman Hermant of 7.30 noted in his report:

Eventually, unable to get their equipment in position, the crews filled in the holes they had prepared for upgraded power poles and left.

They have not returned.

In its recent financial results, NEXTDC noted a planned capital expenditure spend of $1.3 billion and that its M3 centre in Melbourne had a "total planned capacity upgraded from 200MW to 225MW".

The ABC has attempted to contact the company.

Hello, I'm Daniel Ziffer from the ABC business team and I'll be taking you through the morning on our business, finance and economics blog.

Overnight, Wall Street indices were mixed.

The blue-chip Dow Jones of 30 mega-companies like Boeing and Visa was -0.1% to 51,966 points.

The broader S & P 500 that covers 500 of the largest listed companies in the US +0.4% to 7,690 points.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was +1.1% to 26,430 points.

These numbers are live, and trading is continuing, we’ll update you when there’s a firm closing price.

Our market is set to slide with the ASX 200 futures index tipping a fall of -0.9% or 77 points to 8,783 points.

There’s lots to get to, all of it news, analysis and information and none of it financial advice.

Let’s get started!

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