ASX live updates: All the latest news from company reporting season on the Australian market
It was another big day, with plenty of bigwigs revealing the state of their financial affairs.
Northern Star is basking in gold’s glow and BCF has delivered a star turn for Super Retail Group. NRW suffered a sizeable dent to its profit for the year after copping fallout from the Whyalla Steelworks collapse.
And the Australian share market cracked 9000 points for the first time, extending a record rally fuelled by better-than-expected profit results.
Join us again tomorrow.
Key Events
Australia’s ‘critical’ offering to the US
Australia is key to Donald Trump’s goals of weaning the US off cheap Chinese critical minerals, Australia’s envoy in Washington says.
Critical minerals are just that – minerals, such as lithium, vital for manufacturing advanced technologies, from smartphones and cars to wind turbines and defence systems.
Currently, China dominates the space, but Australia has emerged as a challenger, ruffling some feathers in Beijing.
Because of their importance to modern tech, Western countries are increasingly viewing critical minerals as a matter of national security and scrambling to bolster sovereign stockpiles and production.
In an interview overnight, Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd said that Xi Jinping’s “ideology” on China’s long-term economic development was “to ensure that the world is dependent on China while China is not dependent on the world”.
“And that in a nutshell is what we see across the whole breadth of industrial policy, from semiconductors through to critical minerals and rare earths,” the former prime minister told the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Read the full story here.
Northern Star basks in gold’s glow
Gold’s stunning price run to multiple record highs earlier this year has fuelled an incredible 30 per cent rise in full-year revenue for Super Pit owner Northern Star Resources.
Delivering its FY25 results today, Northern Star reported revenue for its gold came in at $6.4 billion - up from $4.9b a year earlier - courtesy of a 29 per cent increase in the average realised price of the precious metal to $3922 an ounce.
The sky-high prices offset only a one per cent rise in the amount of gold sold - 1.634 million ounce.
Northern Star also reported record group underlying free cash flow of $536 millon, up 16 per cent year-on-year.
Underlying profit came in at $1.4b - up 105 per cent - which will give investors a final dividend of 30c a share, taking the full-year payout to a recod 55c.
Northern Star managing director Stuart Tonkin said amid the “favourable gold price environment”, the miner’s results demonstrated the strength and value-creation it was embedding in the business.
“Looking ahead, our focus remains on unlocking the full value of our production centres and advancing the newly acquired Hemi project, which aligns with both our portfolio and purpose to responsibly deliver superior returns for shareholders,” Mr Tonkin said.
The Hemi deposit in the Pilbara was picked up as part of the multibillion-dollar takeover of De Grey Mining.
“The final investment decision for Hemi is subject to securing final permitting and approvals,” it said.
“Northern Star will continue to advance the State and Federal permitting process as well as work closely with all the Traditional Owners in the management of Native Title and Aboriginal Heritage.
The miner was sitting on cash and bullion of $1.9b at June 30.
While you were sleeping ...
Here’s what happened on US markets overnight ...
The Nasdaq and S&P 500 have fallen as investors sold tech stocks and moved into less highly valued sectors as they also awaited remarks from Federal Reserve officials at their Jackson Hole symposium this week.
Tech stocks, which drove much of the recovery from Wall Street’s April selloff, have been pulling back.
The S&P 500 technology index trimmed early losses to end the session down 0.8 per cent.
Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sectors rose, led by energy, healthcare and consumer staples.
“A broader lens tells you it’s more of a rotation than a true sell off,” said Allspring’s senior portfolio manager Bryant van Cronkhite.
“Tech valuations look extended in the context of inflated spending today. Number two, I would say that there are a lot of pockets of the market that look very attractive from a valuation standpoint and they’ve been broadly ignored.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 16.04 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 44,938.31, the S&P 500 lost 15.6 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 6395.78 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 142.09 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 21,172.86.
Read the full market wrap here.
Originally published on The West Australian
