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.
Fresh highs for ASX200 as stocks gain 1.3%
ASX joins the record breaking party, A2 Milk drained, Crowning the Star
The ASX200 (ASX:XJO) finally joined the global party hitting an all-time high of 7,172 points on Monday.
The list of constituents trading at similar records also continues to grow, with both BHP Group (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) up +3.1% and 4.6% respectively, hitting their own all-time highs today as the iron ore price jumped 10% on Friday to US$212 per tonne.
The incredible rally comes on the back of huge US and European steel demand forcing China to ramp up production.
A2 Milk (ASX:A2M) fell 13.1% but did little to detractor from the jubilance after the company reported little improvement on the pricing, sales, and inventory levels of the stock being sold through ‘daigou’ channels into China.
Sales for the quarter were $295 million with revenue estimates reduced to between $1.2 to $1.25 billion for the full year, management expects this to extend into FY22.
Retail sales rose 1.3% in March, further solidifying the economic recovery driven by a recovery in café and restaurant spending, online sales remain just 9.4% of the total.
Bidding war for Crown heats up, Pendal doubling down again, Incitec reboots
The bidding war for embattled casino operator Crown Ltd continues to heat up, with competitor Star Entertainment Group (ASX:SGR) lobbing a $12 billion bid for the company, ahead of private equity offers.
The group highlighted cost savings of over $100 million and plans to fund the deal through a merger in which shareholders would receive 2.68 SGR shares for every Crown share, who would own 59% of the combined company. The cash value is around $12.5 with both the share prices adding 7.3% and 7.7% respectively.
Despite the activity, Crown announced that ex Lend Lease CEO Steve McCann would be joining as the new CEO. This deal would obviously need to overcome competition and receive a number of other approvals.
Asset manager Pendal (ASX:PDL) has announced another acquisition, buying Thompson Siegel & Walmsley for $413 million which will be funded by a $190 million capital raising at $6.80 per share.
Ammonium producer Incitec Pivot (ASX:IPL) was the other major detractor, falling 8.9% after announcing their struggling production plant in the US would need to be shut down for a second time with major repairs needs. Once again, this highlights the company specific risks sitting in a buoyant sharemarket.
Inflation concerns hit technology sector, India virus mutation, pipeline hack
Investors have become increasingly wary of an impending spike in the consumer price index, the measure for inflation, with both iron ore and copper hitting record highs.
The report is due on Thursday Australian time, but traders have moved in advance, sending the highly valued Nasdaq down 2.6% to begin the week.
Apple (NYSE:AAPL) and Amazon (NYSE:AMZN) were among the biggest detractors, down 2.6% and 3.1% respectively.
The Dow Jones briefly traded above 35,000 points but ended up falling 0.1% despite the energy sector spiking after a key US pipeline was shut down due to a cyberattack. The S&P500 also fell 1.0%.
