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It was a choppy day for the bourse Down Under as we shrugged off gains elsewhere in Asia and instead showed caution ahead of Tuesday.
Why is Tuesday important? It’s the next RBA interest rate decision of course, and basically, the whole country is predicting a cut.
That would be good for sentiment, and could even make CEOs start thinking about listing on the share market again.
However, the labour market remains strong with unemployment at 4.1%. The RBA has previously said it wouldn’t mind it four pips higher.
Looking at sectors, Utilities jumped ahead by 1.6%, followed by Consumer Staples up 1.2%.
Energy took the biggest hit down -1.5% as crude oil dipped on Israeli peace talks and Financials took second, driven in part by Bendigo’s earnings report.
Looking at the greens, BlueScope knocked it out of the park today with a dividend increase to 30cps. You’d better believe they’re fully franked. Just don’t look at profits in the latest earnings, which are down 60% in the latest half. All behold the mighty dividend; BlueScope finished up 13%, at $25.25.
Meanwhile, Althea Group jumped on low volumes after a $4M placement to expand into the U.S. market for THC-containing beverages. The question is what the company can do to disrupt this perhaps saturated space stateside. Althea finished up 5% at 2.1cps.
Finally, Audinate claimed biggest riser of the day, up 26.5% to just shy of $9.60ps on a well-received earnings report. Let’s go to the reds.
Bendigo Bank also posted a big profit loss of -23%, but unlike BlueScope, it had no dividend increase to save it. If the bank didn’t have its worst-ever day, it surely came close. Net interest margin pressure remains a problem for all the banks, but Bendigo suffers for not being a big four.
It was joined by Ainsworth Game Technology, the second biggest faller, which posted an earnings report not well-received. This is interesting seeing as gambling machine makers have largely been spared the casino stock rout. AGI ended down -11% at 77cps.
Finally, on-again-off-again explorer darling Meeka Metals declined just over 8%; the stock posted no news on Monday and market momentum seekers appear to have started looking elsewhere after a recent good run. The stock finished at 11cps.
That’s Market Close for Monday afternoon, I’m Jonathon Davidson, have a great night and we’ll see you tomorrow for the market open.
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