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.
Market falls as Russia enters arm conflict with Ukraine, Cimic surges, Appen tanks
Global sharemarkets were shaken by the inevitable news that Russia had finally attacked various targets in Ukraine, all but declaring war on the nation.
Whilst the implications are likely to be localised, the impact on the oil price and its role within the global economy will be felt far and wide.
In a positive for patient investors, gold bullion has reached a 12 month high exceeding AUD$2,700.
The S&P/ASX200 was dragged 3 per cent lower, with armed conflict simply the latest reason for investors to de-risk.
The technology sector was the worst-performing however, with long-time growth favourites Appen (ASX: APX) and Life360 (ASX: 360) falling more than 28 per cent each after delivering underwhelming earnings updates.
In the case of Appen, 24 per cent revenue growth was offset by concerns that Apple’s privacy changes will impact the company’s ability to market in the future.
Life360 on the other hand reported a 40 per cent increase in revenue but doubled their loss from 2020.
Shares in Cimic (ASX: CIM) surged by 33 per cent after majority shareholder Hochtief flagged a plan to acquire the remaining shares they don’t already own.
Ramsay, Qube outperform on solid earnings, Qantas loss narrows
Shares in Ramsay Healthcare (ASX: RHC) were among the few winners on the day, gaining 0.2 per cent after delivering a better than expected earnings result.
Despite being impacted by surgical restrictions in each of their key markets, the company reported a 1 per cent increase in revenue and 21 per cent improvement in profit, with a likely tailwind to come as restrictions continue to be removed in Australia and the UK.
Shares in Qube Holdings (ASX: QUB) also finished 0.4 per cent higher one of just a few to do so, after the company reported a 29 per cent jump in revenue and 13 per cent improvement in earnings.
Management cited the significant diversification across their customer base, lack of any dominant counterparties and a spread of commodities behind the 50 per cent leap in profit to $72 million.
The group has overcome supply chain issues and looks well placed for the future.
Qantas (ASX: QAN) appears to be finally turning the corner and will benefit from recent border openings, with revenue in the first half up 31 per cent to $3.1 billion and their loss shrinking to $456 million from $1.06 billion in the year prior; shares were 5 per cent lower.
US markets rally despite armed threat, gold, oil prices move higher, bond yields slide
In a somewhat unexpected shift, the major US markets all finished higher on Thursday despite facing the threat of being forced to join the armed conflict in Ukraine in the coming months.
On some levels, given that many of the companies listed on US markets will be impacted by anything more than risk appetite, it wasn’t surprising to see the Nasdaq surge back 3.4 per cent after an early selloff with one in ten constituents moving sharply higher.
Netflix (NYSE: NFLX) gained 6 per cent and Amazon (NYSE: AMZN) closer to 5 with neither company likely to be hurt by the global events.
The likes of JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Travellers detracted from the Dow Jones, which finished 0.3 per cent higher, whilst the flood to quality that has dominated the last few years continued, with the S&P500 gaining 1.6 per cent on rallies in Apple and Microsoft.
Outside of geopolitical concerns, Ukraine is an important part of the supply chain for a number of commodities including grain, which puts more pressure on the Federal Reserve’s upcoming decision to hike rates; bond yields fell in response.
