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.
The week ahead
Despite another week of solid economic and market announcements, the outlook for the economy and more importantly asset markets remain as uncertain as ever. On the one hand, Australian unemployment falling back below 6% should be seen as an emphatic show of strength, supporting a risk on view towards sharemarkets. Yet the threat of an over-heating economy, headlines about inflation and growing issues on the vaccine rollout mean that it’s hard to have any level of confidence.
This trend is unlikely to change much this week, despite a significant number of global economic releases on the agenda. The tone for the week will likely be set when US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, along with two of his colleagues, deliver more speeches that will be awaited with bated breath. The speech comes ahead of a number of key announcements for the US, with Tuesday and Wednesday bringing new and existing home-sales figures. Experts forecast weaker results due to the inclement weather.
On Thursday we will see the US Purchasing Managers Indices (PMIs) released in the US, which offer a leading indicator into the intentions of both the services and manufacturing industries; expectations are for a continued expansion on the recent recovery. Similar releases will be made across Japan, Europe and Australia, with the Australian figures looking by far the strongest of these diverging economies. These releases are crucial in determining the confidence of business, with a rating of over 50 suggesting a sector that is growing.
Unemployment results will be released in the UK, an economy which has benefited significantly from its own JobKeeper-like package. The British unemployment rate has expanded from 4.0% in March last year to just 5.1% today, with the UK government directly funding many businesses. In fact, analysis suggests as many as four million people are supported by the scheme, so similarly to Australia, the story will be told once these policy supports are removed, not before.
There is little in the way of planned releases for the ASX, however, one of the most long-awaited IPOs will be coming to market on Tuesday, a day later than expected. Airtasker, a peer-to-peer marketplace where users can have ‘tasks’ completed by willing parties for a fee, will list with a market capitalisation of over $220 million. The group’s listing was delayed due to an administration issue at the ASX but the stock will commence trading with a $0.65 per share price. According to management, employees of the company applied for ten times the number of shares initially allocated. The company remains in its infancy, reporting revenue of just $19.3 million in 2020 and a loss of $5.2 million.
