The Overnight Report: Eye On Dividends

This story features BENDIGO & ADELAIDE BANK LIMITED, and other companies. For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: BEN

By Greg Peel

Earnings in Focus

Wall Street was flattish on Friday night heading into the long weekend, leaving the local market to focus more specifically on the day’s earnings results yesterday. Results were, as ever, a mixed bag, leaving the ASX200 to bang around all day in a tight range, ultimately going nowhere.

That said, it was up the banks to hold the fort, rising 0.9% as all but two other sectors fell on the day, with staples and industrials closing up less than 0.1%.

Bendigo & Adelaide Bank ((BEN)) reported yesterday and closed up 1.9%. If a small regional can cope in current banking conditions then it should be good news for the majors. The sector has nevertheless spent a week trying to get over the Commonwealth Bank ((CBA)) result.

Standing out amongst the poorly received results yesterday were those of nib Holdings ((NHF)), down -11.6% after offering no guidance, BlueScope Steel ((BSL)), down -10.0% after downgrading its outlook, and a2 Milk ((A2M)), down -8.6% on weaker sales during Chinese lockdowns. Mind you, a2 Milk shares had rallied 6.3% the day before. Charter Hall Group ((CHC)) also disappointed (-6.1%).

Perenti Global ((PRN)) scored a contract win ahead of its result release this morning, and gained 7.6%.

Aside from a solid response to Australian Clinical Labs’ ((ACL)) result, up 12.5% but not in the ASX200, yesterday’s winners lent more to subsequent broker assessments of results released on Friday.

Inghams Group ((ING)) jumped 11.7%. QBE Insurance ((QBE)) added another 3.7%. PWR Holdings ((PWH)) clawed back 4.4%.

Sector moves reflected big name stock price moves to a great extent. Real estate fell -1.0% on Charter Hall. Materials (flat) managed to balance out BlueScope and big falls for lithium and uranium miners against small gains for the big miners.

Pilbara Mineral’s ((PLS)) apparently upset the lithium apple cart by auctioning off lithium hydroxide via an over-the-counter commercial model rather than the BMX auction system it had been using.

Discretionary fell -0.4% because Wesfarmers ((WES)) went ex.

With Wall Street closed overnight, today will again be a session of focusing on result releases. Today brings the biggie – BHP Group ((BHP)). Will it disappoint on dividends?

Also reporting today are the likes of Coles Group ((COL)), Seek ((SEK)), Tabcorp ((TAH)) and Stockland ((SGP)).

The futures aren’t waiting for any results. With no Wall Street and mild strength in European markets, they’re down -29 points this morning.

Commodities

News is the US is looking to impose a 200% tariff on imports of Russian aluminium, as the West sets to roll out a new wave of sanctions. Russia is the second biggest global producer behind China, and Chinese inventories are reportedly low.

Base metal prices had a bit of a run ahead of China’s covid policy about-face, but any surge in Chinese construction activity has been slow to arrive – punctuated by the Lunar New Year – and base metal prices have been quietly sliding for a month.

Bit of a change of heart last night, and perhaps some short-covering.

The Aussie is up 0.6% at US$0.6913.

Today

The SPI Overnight closed down -29 points or -0.4%.

What are traders afraid of? Today’s earnings results? The minutes of the February RBA meeting, due today?

The world will provide flash estimates of February PMIs today.

Aside from earnings reporters noted above, today’s list of ex-dividends includes Computershare ((CPU)), Endeavour Group ((EDV)) and Magellan Financial ((MFG)).

For a calendar of earnings result releases and a summary of earnings results to date, refer to FNArena's Corporate Results Monitor (https://www.fnarena.com/index.php/reporting_season/)

The Australian share market over the past thirty days…

For more detail go to FNArena's Australian Broker Call Report, which is updated each morning, Mon-Fri.

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