ASX 200: James Hardie to buy US rival Azek; Helia slammed by potential contract loss; Regal down on Opthea fail

Building products giant James Hardie's likely paying too much for US buy. Potential loss of CBA contract hits Helia. Regal dives as pharma group Opthea enters suspension amid survival talks.

Budget commentary and reaction will underpin market sentiment this week. Picture: Gaye Gerard

That's all from the Trading Day blog for Monday, March 24. The ASX 200 index closed up 5.7 points at 7936.9 points on light volume with gains in banks and consumer discretionary stocks offsetting falls in most other sectors.

Wall Street ended its Friday session mostly flat. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes up 0.1 per cent and the technology-focused Nasdaq gaining 0.5 per cent.

Cryptocurrency giant bitcoin is above $US85,000.

The Aussie dollar is trading around US62.84c.

Originally published as ASX 200: James Hardie to buy US rival Azek; Helia slammed by potential contract loss; Regal down on Opthea fail