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.
Miners help Aussie market
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished at the highs of the day on Thursday, up 53.5 points, or 0.81 per cent, to 6648.0.
The broader All Ordinaries rose 52.6 points, or 0.78 per cent, to 6836.9.
A 1.9 per cent rise in Singapore iron ore futures, to $US113.30 a tonne, helped the big miners, with BHP up $1.18, or 3.1 per cent, to $38.94; Rio Tinto gaining $3.81, or 4.1 per cent to $97.18 – after losing 7.4 per cent on Wednesday – and Fortescue Metals adding 72 cents, or 4.4 per cent, to $17.20.
Improving aluminium prices helped South32 lift 17 cents, or 4.8 per cent, to $3.70.
Chalice Mining, which discovered the whopping nickel, copper and platinum group elements deposit at Julimar outside Perth in March 2020, was up 25 cents, or 6.7 per cent, to $4.00, on a fresh new find at the prospect.
On the energy side, falling oil prices are dampening sentiment, but Woodside Energy rose 8 cents, or 0.3 per cent, to $30.28; and Beach Energy was up 3 cents, or 1.9 per cent, to $1.64; however, Santos slipped 12 cents, or 1.7 per cent, to $6.90; and Karoon Energy eased 4.5 cents, or 3 per cent, to $1.45.
Financials feeling their way higher
In the financial sector, three of the big four headed into the green, with ANZ up 40 cents, or 1.8 per cent, to $22.80; Commonwealth Bank $1.08, or 1.2 per cent, higher at $93.08; and Westpac up 15 cents, or 0.8 per cent, to $20.00; but NAB bucked the trend, closing unchanged at $28.15.
Macquarie Group was up 99 cents, or 0.6 per cent, to $170.65, while Bendigo and Adelaide Bank gained 10 cents, or 1.1 per cent, to $9.37, after announcing a deal to buy ANZ’s $715 million margin lending business.
On the insurance side, IAG was up 5 cents, or 1.2 per cent, to $4.37; Suncorp gained 7 cents, or 0.7 per cent, to $10.89; and QBE was up 8 cents, or 0.7 per cent, to $11.75.
In the small-cap world, biotech stock Imugene continued its great recent run, up 2 cents, or 9.1 per cent, to 24 cents; the stock is up almost 30 per cent in the past five days, after excellent results for its immunotherapy treatment HER-Vaxx in a phase two trial in patients with advanced gastric cancer.
Waiting on the Jobs report
The American markets are holding their breath ahead of tonight’s (our time) monthly jobs snapshot from the Bureau of Labor Statistics; the June report is expected to show the US economy adding about 250,000 jobs in June, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
That would be less than the 390,000 jobs gained in May, but in the circumstances, it would be seen as a strong number. The US unemployment rate is expected to hold at about 3.6 per cent.
Overnight, the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 346.9 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 31,384.6; while the broader S&P 500 added 57.5 points, or 1.5 per cent, to 3,902.6; and the tech bellwether, the Nasdaq Composite Index, surged 259.5 points, or 2.3 per cent, to 11,621.4.
In Europe, the STOXX 600 index rose 1.9 per cent, to 415 points, while the loss of a Prime Minister did not faze the UK’s FTSE-100 index, which gained 81.3 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 7,189.1.
Gold is trading at US$1,740.32, while US crude is holding above US$100 at $100.22 a barrel. The Australian dollar was buying 68.10 US cents at the close of the local market last night but has strengthened to 68.4 US cents.
