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.
ASX falls, NAB down despite dividend, James Hardie profit triples
ASX falls, NAB down despite dividend, James Hardie profit triples
The S&P/ASX200 (ASX: XJO) fell another 20 points of 0.2 per cent on Tuesday, with selling pressure among the banking sector the biggest detractor.
Only materials, healthcare and tech companies were higher as we near the end of another reporting season.
The financial sector was down by more than 1 per cent after the National Australia Bank (ASX: NAB) delivered their annual earnings result, falling 0.8 per cent in the process.
The company delivered a 77 per cent increase in cash profit to $6.56 billion for the 12 months despite another 6-basis point fall in their net interest margin.
On the positive side, management appears to be keeping costs under control, with expenses down 13 per cent, significantly better than Westpac (ASX: WBC).
NAB also announced they will cease oil and gas lending from 2026. The strong result saw a doubling of the dividend to 67 cents per share, but no buyback like both Westpac and CBA have delivered.
Shares in medium-sized miner Chalice (ASX: CHN) topped the ASX200 soaring by 29 per cent after announcing a ‘monster’ resource at their Nickel, Copper and Platinum project.
Building boom continues, Newcrest invests, Scentre sees return to normal
Shares in James Hardie (ASX: JHX) were slightly lower after the company reported a fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit sales growth across all of their operational regions.
The result was a near doubling of profit to US$271 million in the first half of the year, as US and European sales of fibre cement grew 23 per cent alone.
Importantly, margins continue to expand with recent input price increases passed onto customers, allowing the company to continue to invest and innovate.
Shares in Newcrest (ASX: NCM) fell 1.6 per cent despite management announcing a major acquisition, paying $3.8 billion for Canada-based Pretivm.
The company owns the Brucejack operation in the ‘Golden Triangle’ in British Columbia.
Shopping centre owner Scentre (ASX: SCG) fell 1.3 per cent after guiding to a stronger than expected distribution in FY22 with management confirmed rent collections for the year to day are $187 million above the same period in 2020.
They are seeing customers quickly return to shopping centres with occupancy at 98.5 per cent despite the lockdowns.
The BetaShares Cyrpto Innovators ETF (ASX: CRYP) is expected to have reached a record $100 million in assets under management after the market closes, attracting significant assets in just a few days.
US markets ‘two perfect weeks’ end, GE to split, Tesla tanks on share sales
US markets have ended their run of ‘perfect weeks’ closing higher every trading session nut ultimately capitulating.
The Dow Jones fell over 200 points or 0.3 per cent, with the Nasdaq down 0.6 and the S&P500 down 0.4 per cent.
The biggest detractors came from the consumer discretionary, financials and tech sectors.
PayPal (NYSE: PYPL) fell by more than 11 per cent after providing a lower-than-expected forecast for fourth quarter revenue due to supply chain and labour issues.
The company reported US$310 billion in transaction volume in the prior quarter and a major deal to act as a check out option for Amazon (NYSE: AMZN).
Shares in General Electric (NYSE: GE) gained close to 3 per cent after the historic conglomerate announced a further rationalise as it sets about separately listing its healthcare, energy and aviation businesses.
Tesla (NYSE: TSLA) sank by just under 10 per cent following a poll by CEO Elon Musk that asked Twitter users whether he should sell a portion of his shareholder to fund the execution of free options. Musk takes no salary from the business.
