ASX reporting season live updates: Everything you need to know about companies revealing results today

The Australian sharemarket is consolidating its position above 9000 points after the first 30 minutes of trade, rising 76.4 points - up 0.9 per cent - to 9083.4.

Eight of the 11 sectors were in the green, with discretionary stocks leading the laggards - down almost 3 per cent.

Energy was up 2.2 per cent, industrials 1.8 per cent and telcos 1.7 per cent. Miners and the banks also added about 1.3 per cent.

WA-based contractor NRW was among the big early winners, rising 13. 3 per cent after it lifted its payout off the back of a high profit result for the half.

Zip Co, Lovisa Holdings, Goodman Group and Medibank suffered the biggest losses, with Zip down a staggering 32 per cent.

WA diversified juggernaut Wesfarmers was also among the top-five worst-performers, down almost 6 per cent despite reporting a healthy hike in half-year profit and a bigger interim payout.

Raleigh Finlayson’s Genesis Minerals has quadrupled net profit as gold production ramps up at the growing miner.

Net profit after tax for the six months ended December 31 rose four-fold to $238m, with production up from 93,075oz in the prior period to 147,139oz.

Average sales prices of $5,590 per ounce drove sales revenues of $820.3m.

“The combination of production growth, tight cost control and a strong gold price has culminated in abundant cashflow, record profits and an extremely robust balance sheet,” recently promoted executive chair Mr Finlayson said.

“This means we are ideally positioned to continue unlocking the huge growth opportunities we have established, ensuring our cycle of expanding production and cash generation continues.”

The miner said planning for Tower Hill, a key major growth project in Leonora, was running ahead of schedule.

Rio Tinto has taken majority control of Canada’s Nemaska Lithium as part of a push to invest more in Quebec projects tied to the battery metal.

The global mining company made several investments to bring its stake up to 54 per cent of Nemaska, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report.

Rio got its initial 50 per cent stake in Nemaska through its $US6.7 billion acquisition of Arcadium Lithium, which closed about a year ago. The mining company expects to invest about $US300 million in 2026 in its Quebec lithium business.

It also has plans for larger outlays in the few years after that, including advancing its Galaxy hard rock lithium development in the James Bay region, an open-pit mine that would have an estimated life of 15 to 20 years.

Production is expected to start in 2028 in Becancour. Nemaska entered a long-term supply agreement with Ford in 2023.

“Rio Tinto’s activities in Quebec play an important role in our ambition to take our world-class lithium business to the next level of growth and performance,” Jerome Pecresse, the head of the aluminum and lithium unit, said.

The company said that both the Galaxy project and Nemaska’s Whabouchi mine, also in northern Quebec, are still under review, and the evaluation is expected to be completed in the first half of 2026.

The firm said in a strategic update in December that it expects to spend $US1 billion annually over three years on lithium growth in Canada and Argentina, and more than double its lithium production capacity to about 200,000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate by 2028. Becancour’s output would be about 32,000t a year.

Bloomberg

Fashion jewellery retailer Lovisa has posted a 2.6 per cent increase in half-year profit to $58.4 million.

Total revenue was $500.7m, up 23.3 per cent on the same time last year in what the retailer said was a result of the continued growth in the store network.

Shares in the company were down 13 per cent to $26.96 in early trade.

Lovisa increased its interim dividend by 3¢ from a year ago to 53¢.

“Lovisa has once again been able to deliver strong growth in the underlying global Lovisa business, with the highlight another exceptional gross margin performance and the continued momentum in the store rollout through the period,” global chief executive John Cheston said.

Mining equipment rental group Emeco says it is poised for growth after booking a 15 per cent jump net profit to $39 million for the first half.

Revenue for the period was up 9 per cent versus the same time a year earlier to $421m, delivering earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $155m - up 7 per cent.

Boss Ian Testrow - who is consistantly among the list of top 10 best-paid WA executives - said the “very solid” performance consolidated the strong gains achieved in the last half of 2024/25.

“This is an excellent result given the magnitude of the earnings improvement in FY25 following the business model reset in FY24, and I am extremely proud of the Emeco team in maintaining this high level of performance,” he said.

“The focus on cost and capital discipline has generated almost $230M in operating cash flow1 over the last four half-year periods.

“This has transformed our balance sheet with leverage improving from the top end of our new long-term target range to being comfortably at the bottom end. “

Mr Testrow said operating conditions in the mining sector remained positive, with a “robust medium-term production volume outlook”, despite recent commodity price volatility.

Emeco said it was prioritising growth opportunities over the next 12 months and did not decalre an interim dividend.

The company six months ago revealed it had been looked over by several parties, though none had put forward any proposal capable of being considered by Emeco’s board.

Improving prices for lithium helped PLS turn a $69 million loss for the first half of the previous financial year into a $33m profit for the six months to the end of December.

A 7 per cent rise in sales of battery material spodumene concentrate for the period to 446,000 tonnes pulled in $624m for the half-year - up 47 per cent - as realised prices for 6 per cent-grade product jumped from $US780 a tonne s a year ago to $US1105/t.

Undertlying earnings were up 241 per cent to $253m.

But the board of PLS has held off paying an interim dividend, saying its priority was to preserve balance sheet strength and financial flexibility through the price cycle.

“Subject to sustained supportive lithium pricing and continued free cash flow generation, the board will be well positioned to consider a dividend at the time of the FY26 full year results, in accordance with the company’s capital management framework,” it said.

CEO Dale Henderson said the solid result was driven by higher realised pricing, reliable operating performance and continued cost discipline, with unit operating costs declining 8 per cent to $563/t FOB.

PLS ended the period with $954m in cash and about $1.6 billion in total liquidity.

Telstra’s profit has surged 8 per cent to $1.21 billion in the first six months of the financial year, driven largely by the strength of its mobile phones business.

Australia’s biggest telco released its half-year results for 2025/26 on Thursday and also changed its earnings guidance for the full year to between $8.2b and $8.4b, slightly adjusted from the previous expectations of $8.15b to $8.45b.

Telstra can thank its dominance in the mobile phones sector for the half-year result, with that part of its business rising 3.6 per cent to $5.7b, an increase that also reflected higher prices.

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Bunnings has once again proved an unstoppable earnings force for Wesfarmers, bucking any signs of consumer slowdown to grow revenue 4.2 per cent to $10.7 billion for the half year.

The big green sheds made up the lion’s share of the WA conglomerate’s overall revenue of $24.2b for the six months to the end of December - up 3.1 per cent on the same time a year ago.

Post-tax profit rocketed 9.3 per cent to $1.6b, allowing Wesfarmers to hike its interim fully franked dividend to $1.02 a share - up from 95c this time last year.

Earning before interest and tax for the half were up 8.4 per cent to $2.5b.

Managing director Rob Scott said the profit result was supported by strong earnings contributions from our largest divisions – Bunnings, Kmart Group and WesCEF.

“During the half, Wesfarmers’ divisions benefited from productivity initiatives to navigate ongoing challenging market conditions,” he said.

“Despite a modest improvement in consumer demand, higher costs continued to weigh on many households and businesses, and residential construction activity remained subdued.

“The divisions performed well, driving productivity to mitigate cost pressures and keep prices low for customers.

“Bunnings demonstrated the strength of its offer, with higher sales across all product categories, operating regions and in both consumer and commercial segments.”

Battery minerals miner IGO has booked a $34.1 million net loss for the December quarter in a move chief executive Ivan Vella said shows “decisive action” over the past 12 months.

But revenues for the half-year to the end of December fell to $194.1m, down 32 per cent on the same time last year.

Its underlying loss from its share of the TLEA joint venture with Tianqi - which owns the struggling Kwinana lithium hydroxide refinery - improved from $19.6m to $800,000.

Underlying earnings were positive. IGO made writedowns to the tune of $524.6m on the asset in the prior period.

Free cash flow increased by $19.2m.

“IGO’s improved underlying results reflects our decisive actions over the past 12 months to maximise cash generation and increasing cost discipline,” Mr Vella said.

“While we always have further work to do, I see these results showing good progress, particularly at a time when complexity in the Nova mine is at an all time high.”

Belmont contractor NRW has lifted its dividend off the back of a high profit result for the half.

Statutory net profit rose 40.8 per cent to $72.8 million on the same comparable half, buoyed by a 19.5 per rise in revenue to $1.9 billion.

A 8.5c-a-share interim payout to investors has been declared. NRW eneded the half with $342.4m in cash.

NRW has about $7.5b worth of work lined up after winning significant contracts with Rio Tinto and upgrades to Toodyay Road and the Dampier Link Bridge. Active tenders stood at $9.2b.

The contractor finalised its acquisition of Fredon during the period.

“Looking ahead, I am optimistic about the outlook across all four segments, each of which enters the second half with strong momentum and clear opportunities for long term sustainable growth,” chief executive Jules Pemberton said.