Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

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By Stephen Hogan, Senior Private Client Adviser, Equities/Derivatives

Australian Market

The Australian market (XJO) closed down -38.5 points or 0.75% to 5113.9 today. The week closed with a sell off beginning on the open, falling almost 40 points in the first 10 minutes of trading. We saw an extremely weak lead overnight out of the U.S. with the Dow Jones fell -225.47 points or 1.47% to 15,112.20, and the S&P 500 dropped -24.07 points or 1.43% to 1,661.32 as people are agreeing that the Fed tapering its stimulus efforts are increasingly likely to begin in September this year. We saw the XJO hit a daily low of 5101.4 at 11:12am and stick in a 20 point range for the rest of the day. The best performing sector was Gold followed by Energy, gaining 4.15% and 0.85%, while the worst sector was Consumer Staples, falling -1.27%. The XJO rose 58.7 points, or 1.2% for the week.

Australia and New Zealand Bank Limited ((ANZ)) in the 9 months to June period recorded a cash profit of $4.8 billion, rising 11%. ANZ said it was experiencing slower revenue growth than a year earlier but its bottom line had been boosted by a 2% fall in provisions for bad debts and a 0.5% fall in expenses.

Santos Limited ((STO)) posted a first half net profit of $271 million, up from $262 million earned a year earlier, as slight declines in output were offset by a rise in product prices. Revenue rose to $1.53 billion from $1.49 billion, while underlying net profit for the half declined to $251 million from $283 million. An interim dividend of 15 cents a share has been declared. Output for the first half declined 4% to 24.5 million barrels of oil equivalent, which is forecast to recover slightly during the second half to total 52-55 million for the whole year.

Fairfax Media Limited ((FXJ)) has denied speculation it has decided to sell its hotel website Stayz but revealed it receives approaches for the business from time to time.  

Domino's Pizza Enterprises Limited ((DMP)) has raised around $137 million from an institutional entitlement offer with a 97% take-up. The retail entitlement offer opens on Tuesday August 20 with an offer price of $10.20 per share.

RHG Limited ((RHG)) which was previously RAMS has urged caution after receiving a takeover bid from its largest shareholder Cadence Capital Limited ((CDM)) and Pepper Australia to compete with a rival offer from a syndicate led by Resimac Limited.  

AUD is currently trading at $0.9147, up $0.011 against the USD.

Top Performers

Perseus Mining Limited ((PRU)) up $0.13 or 19.85% to $0.785

St Barbara Limited ((SBM)) up $0.075 or 12.71% to $0.665

Mineral Deposits Limited ((MDL)) up $0.23 or 10.27% to $2.47

Resolute Mining Limited ((RSG)) up $0.075 or 8.98% to $0.91

Domino's Pizza Enterprises Limited ((DMP)) up $1.06 or 8.97% to $12.88

Bottom Performers

Energy World Corporation Limited ((EWC)) down -$0.045 or -7.69% to $0.54

Ramsay Health Care Limited ((RHC)) down -$2.33 or -6.51% to $33.44

Arrium Limited ((ARI)) down -$0.065 or -5.86% to $1.045

Linc Energy Ltd ((LNC)) down -$0.095 or -5.53% to $1.68

Skilled Group Limited ((SKE)) down -$0.16 or -4.91% to $3.10

Our Comments

Well we were expecting a drop in the market today and the good news is there was support just above the 5100 level.

As we move though reporting season about 30% of companies have reported with 41% of them exceeding expectations. 33% of results have been below expectations, 68% have seen their profits rise from a year ago, 65% of companies have increased their dividends from a year ago and 9% have cut them. 55% of companies have seen their share price outperform the market on the day their results were released.

(For a more comprehensive summary of last night’s market action see FNArena’s Overnight Report.)
 

Re-published with permission. Views expressed are not by association FNArena's (see our disclaimer).

Stephen Hogan is an Authorised Representative of Novus Capital. Authorised Representative No.345411 – http://www.stephenhogan.com.au

Novus Capital Limited ("Novus") is holder of Australian Financial Services Licence No 238 168. Novus, its directors, officers, associates and employees each declare that they, from time to time, may hold interests in financial products and/or earn brokerage, commission, fees or other benefits from financial products mentioned in this e-mail or attached documents. Unless specifically stated within this e-mail or an attached document, any information communicated by this e-mail constitutes unsolicited general financial product advice which has been compiled without regard to any investor's individual objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not specific advice for any particular investor. Before making any decision about the information provided, you need to consider the appropriateness of this information having regard to your individual objectives, financial situation and needs and consult your adviser. Any indicative information and assumptions used here are summarised and also may change without notice to you, particularly if based on past performance or relate to a future matter.

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