ASX live updates: All the latest news from company reporting season on the Australian market
Well, we’re now easing into the final few days of the first big week of reporting season.
Evolution Mining yesterday gave us a glimpse of how the goldies might do with a record-breaking set of financials and a higher payout for investors.
Commonwealth Bank also delivered with a $10.25 billion profit, hitting market-watcher consensus thanks to a surging home loan book fuelled by easing interest rates and property prices that remain red-hot.
Today we have ASX Ltd, Origin Energy, Telstra and Temple and Webster stepping up to the plate.
We’ll bring you all the news you need to know throughout the day.
Jobless rate falls, more women looking for work
Australia’s jobs market still looks strong with the unemployment rate ticking lower to 4.2 per cent in July.
There were 24,500 extra workers employed in the month, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.
It comes after a soft June that had sparked some analysts to urge the Reserve Bank to move faster on cutting interest rates.
Read the full story here.
Ampol pumps the brakes
Ampol has paused trade in its shares, pending news of a “potential material acquisition transaction” in coming days.
The fuel giant said the halt could last until Monday.
There has been media speculation the deal may see Ampol make a $1 billion play for UK-owned EG Australia.
Pumping up the economy
Australia’s economy is getting a surprising boost from the wellness sector, which has quietly grown to one of the nation’s leading sectors.
According to a new report by Global Wellness Institute, Australia ranks seventh in the world when it comes to spending on their healthcare.
In total this added $194.4 billion in 2023, up 10.9 per cent year on year or around $7402 per person.
Wellness now makes up seven per cent of Australia’s GDP, placing it behind the construction sector.
Read the full story here.
ASX200 post new record high
The S&P/ASX200 has climbed to yet another new record intraday high.
The index had gained 0.7 per cent to 8883.9 points by 11am AEST, up 56.8 from yesterday’s close after hitting 8891.3 in early trade.
All sectors, aside from telcos and industrials, were in the green. Utilites were the biggest movers, up almost 4 per cent. Health care, IT, financial and consumer staple stock also added solid gains.
Origin Energy, Westpac, Temple and Webster and Life360 were among the biggest individual winners.
South32 tanked 3 per cent on the news it would start preparing to mothball its Mozal aluminium smelter in Mozambique because it could not secure terms for affordable power supply beyond March next year.
Telstra was down 2.6 per cent after reporting a profit of $2.3 billion and a $1b buyback scheme.
Rio Tinto was also down 2 per cent.
Jobs figures to help RBA understand labour conditions
Australia’s jobless rate could edge lower for July after a surprise jump a month earlier wrong-footed economists.
Market expectations are for the unemployment rate to fall back to 4.2 per cent, when the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases its latest labour force survey.
After the unexpected June figures economists noted the higher-than-anticipated rise was partly because of a sub-sample with a higher than average unemployment rate being rotated into the survey.
So a modest reversal in Thursday’s print should not be over interpreted as a sign the labour market is becoming tighter.
Indeed, Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock noted various indicators suggest conditions in the labour market had eased in recent months.
“There’s some sense in which the labour market is easing. There are some indicators that we think suggest that things are still a little bit on the tight side,” she told reporters after the central bank cut interest rates by 25 basis points on Tuesday.
“If we can maintain where we are I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”
Read the full story here.
Telstra posts $2.3b profit, reveals $1b buyback
Australia’s biggest telecommunications provider has delivered bumper profit growth of more than 30 per cent, as it continues to drive down costs.
Telstra reported a bottom line net profit of $2.3 billion for 2024/25, up from $1.8 billion in the previous financial year, despite a tiny uptick in revenue to $23.1 billion.
However, the result was skewed by a significant one-off cost of $715 million booked in the prior period and linked to restructuring efforts in one of its businesses.
Underlying earnings rose almost five per cent to $8.6 billion, which was within its guidance range.
“We delivered our fourth consecutive year of underlying growth, reflecting momentum across our business, strong cost control and disciplined capital management,” chief executive Vicki Brady said in a statement.
Telstra’s mobile business drove most of the profit result, after generating revenue growth of 3.5 per cent.
Read the full story here.
South32 preps to pull plug on Mozal in Mozambique
South32 will start standing down contractors and prepare to shutter its Mozal aluminium plant in Mozambique, saying it has little confidence it can reach a deal to secure affordable electricity to run the operations.
The Perth-headquartered mixed metals miner revealed a month ago it could be forced to pull the plug after years of talks with the southern African nation’s government to power the smelter beyond March 2026 failed to deliver an agreement.
In an update to the market on Thursday, the miner said talks continued but there appeared little hope of a resolution.
“These engagements do not provide confidence that Mozal will secure sufficient and affordable electricity beyond March 2026,” it said.
Read the full story here.
NAB fined for failing to answer customers in financial hardship
National Australia Bank and a subsidiary have been fined more than $15 million for failing to respond to hardship applications.
In a Federal Court decision released on Wednesday, NAB and AFSH Nominees were found to have left hardship applicants in the dark after failing to respond within 21 days.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission brought the lawsuit.
In her decision, Justice Penny Neskovcin details that people who asked the bank for help were going through medical emergencies, family violence, the pandemic and business failure, natural disasters, and redundancy and unemployment.
“These failures likely made an already challenging time in people’s lives far worse,” ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said.
Read the full story here.
While you were sleeping ...
Here’s what happened on US markets overnight.
The benchmark S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes have hit new closing highs for the second straight day on hopes that the Federal Reserve is getting close to a monetary easing cycle.
But the market reflected weakness in some technology stocks after the previous day’s strong gains.
Signs that US tariffs on imports have not fully filtered into headline consumer prices came as a relief for investors this week as they seek insight on the effects of trade uncertainty on the economy.
Some large technology stocks including Nvidia, Alphabet and Microsoft - among the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks - closed lower as investors searched for new growth drivers.
“Valuations are elevated. I do think, though, at the end of the day, the key will be the delivery of earnings, and that’s what we’re seeing,” said Katherine Bordlemay, co-head of client portfolio management, fundamental equities at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
She said the dispersion of stock-level returns in the US is at one of the higher levels of the last 30 years.
Read the full market wrap-up here.
Originally published on The West Australian
