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.
Tech and health stocks outperform as ASX adds 0.2%
Market records continue, materials weaker, activity grows in IT sector
The ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) added another 0.2% on Tuesday, with the materials sector the biggest detractor, falling 0.1% under the weight of BHP Group (ASX: BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO).
The IT sector continues to surge, adding 1.3%, along with the real estate sector which jumped 1% on somewhat positive news for the Melbourne lockdown.
The highlights across the market were EML Payments (ASX: EML) which added 6.3%, NEXTDC Ltd (ASX: NXT) up 4.4%, and Vicinity Centres (ASX: VCX), which was 2.1% higher.
More mixed economic data was released, with CBA’s household card spending over the last fortnight printing 14.5% above 2019 levels, whilst impressive on the headline, was the slowest growth rate seen thus far in 2021.
Boral Ltd (ASX: BLD) has continued its on-market buyback, which is having the reverse effect of seeing acquirer Seven Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: SVW) increase its shareholding by default.
SVW’s offer of $6.50 is now being formalised with a share price well above the proposed price at the current time.
Superloop to acquire Exetel, National Storage launches capital raising
Internet service provider Superloop Ltd (ASX: SLC) entered a trading halt before the market opened, announcing its intention to acquire all the shares of private market leader Exetel.
The group is Australia’s largest independent service provider, with the deal to include $100 million in cash and $10 million in SLC shares.
Management suggests that $5 million in synergies will be released in year one, with the deal to be funded via a $100 million institutional and retail capital raising.
Commenting on the deal, management highlighted the opportunity to bring super-fast, easy, and reliable connections to three times more homes and businesses.
National Storage REIT (ASX: NSR) has delivered record occupancy for its storage units in Australia and New Zealand, after undertaking 27 acquisitions totalling $373 million in 2020.
This morning, the company flagged a $325 million capital raising in order to replenish its ‘investment capacity’ and reiterated its expectation to deliver 8% growth in FY21.
US markets flat, Fastly sends internet into meltdown, Biogen’s Alzheimer’s shock
The S&P 500 finished flat on Tuesday, with the likes of Apple Inc (NYSE: AAPL) and Amazon.com Inc (NYSE: AMZN) pacing the market and ensuring the Nasdaq was strongest, adding 0.3%. The Dow Jones continued to weaken, falling 0.1%.
There was more positive news around jobs growth, with job openings hitting 9.3 million in April, well above the 8.2 million expected as lockdowns come to an end.
The news of the night, however, was the failure of content distribution network Fastly Inc (NYSE: FSLY), which is the technology supporting news sites ranging from the Australian Financial Review to the Financial Times.
Dozens of sites were hit by an outage, yet the company’s shares finished over 11% higher after quickly rectifying the issue.
Biogen Inc (NASDAQ: BIIB) jumped over 30% after the FDA approved its latest version of an Alzheimer’s treatment, the first such approval in over 20 years.
