Christmas has come early for the bank’s shareholders with the decision to slightly increase the 2024 dividend – despite a single-digit decline in the net profit and cash earnings.
Beating the market benchmark is never easy, with 72 per cent of Australian actively managed global equity general funds trailing the S&P World Index in the six months to June 30, 2024. Domestic equity funds performed slightly better, albeit against a significantly lower bar set by the S&P/ASX 200 Index.
Appen left at the altar. Market heads lower. Good week continues for US markets.
Appen left at the altar
A bizarre blink-and-you-missed takeover approach came and seemingly went for one of the local market’s tech leaders Appen, which develops the datasets for machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Canadian company Telus International sprang a $9.50 a share bid on the company, which said it would talk to Telus to try to extract a better offer.
But in the afternoon Telus revoked its proposal, blindsiding Appen. A bemused share market lifted the Appen share price $1.87, or 29.2 per cent, to $8.27, after opening at $7.99 and peaking at $8.48 in morning trade.
The takeover interest in Appen galvanised the rest of the tech sector, with Tyro Payments adding 5 cents or 5 per cent to $1.04; Pointsbet Holdings gaining 12 cents, or 5 per cent, to $2.50; Pro Medicus rising $1.06, or 2.7 per cent, to $40.66; and WiseTech Global ending 94 cents, or 2.4 per cent, higher at $40.80.
Afterpay owner Block Inc. gained $1.34, or 1.2 per cent, to $110.59, while fellow BNPL player Sezzle jumped 2.5 cents, or 5.1 per cent, to 52 cents.
Market heads lower
Despite this interest lifting the All Tech Index by 1 per cent to 2,054, the topline market indices closed weaker.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 49.3 points to 7105.9 points, while the broader S&P/ASX All Ordinaries lost 0.7 per cent, to 7339.3 points.
The big banks were a mixed bag, with NAB down 9 cents to $31.57, ANZ 10 cents weaker at $25.53, and Commonwealth down 74 cents at $105.43, while Westpac went against the tide, eking out a 3-cent gain to $23.90.
In big mining, Fortescue lost 76 cents, or 3.7 per cent, to $19.92; Rio Tinto was down $1.18, or just over 1 per cent, to $110.78; and BHP shed 40 cents, or 0.9 per cent, to $42.62.
Good week continues for US markets
On Wall Street, the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average rose for a fifth-straight trading day, adding 516.9 points, or 1.6 per cent, to 32,637.2.
The broader S&P 500 index lifted 79.1 points, or 2 per cent, to 4,057.8, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index put the other two in the shade, rising 305.9 points, or nearly 2.7 per cent, to 11,470.7.
Market sentiment was boosted by a batch of strong earnings from the retail sector, with Macy’s (up 19 per cent), Dollar Tree (up 22 per cent) and Dollar General (up 14 per cent) leading the sector index.
In Europe, the regional Stoxx Europe 600 index ended the day up 0.8 per cent, while the UK’s FTSE 100 closed up 0.6 per cent higher and Germany’s Dax 40 gained 1.6 per cent.
The Australian dollar is buying 71 US cents this morning.
