A rebound in tech stocks has helped the Aussie market finish at session highs, with the ASX 200 up 15.3pts or 0.23% to 6621.6. Seven sectors and 132 stocks finished higher. Gains in the Tech and Consumer Discretionary (up 1.2 per cent) sectors were offset by losses in the resource sectors. Energy stocks fell most (down 1.8 per cent) after a slump in oil prices overnight, and Material stocks extended their decline to a third straight day. Markets are trading cautiously ahead of US inflation data released in the US tonight.
Central banks in both South Korea and New Zealand have raised their official rates by 50 basis points, to 2.25 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively. This was the third consecutive 50 basis-point rate hike for New Zealand, and South Korea’s largest hike since the 1990s.
According to the Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the total number of dwelling starts fell by 6.5 per cent to 49,017 units in the March quarter of 2022 (down by 6.7 per cent on the year). Across Australia, a record 239,346 homes were being built (since September 1960) at the end of March 2022. The value of residential
and commercial building work in the pipeline stood at a record $121.6 billion at the end of March 2022, up by 27.7 per cent on a year ago.
Despite falling by as much as 6.3 per cent in early trade, Platinum Asset Management (PTM) posted a relatively modest decline of 2.3 per cent after releasing a funds-under-management update. PTM says that it experienced net outflows of around $304 million, and noted that its FUM fell by 7 per cent to $18,214 million in June. PTM’s funds have shed 17.2 per cent since the start of this calendar year to June, and have lost 22.6 per cent in FY22.
Australia & New Zealand Bank (ANZ) has confirmed that it is ‘in discussions with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR)’ about the ‘potential acquisition of MYOB’ – a business management, financial and accounting solution provider. ANZ shares shed 1.2 per cent and are on track to snap three straight weeks of gains.
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Kathmandu (KMD) added 0.5 per cent on the back of a trading update it released this morning. KMD expects its FY22 sales to be between $955 million – $965 million, its underlying FY22 EBITDA to be between $88 million – $94 million, and its underlying FY22 EBIT to be between $53 million – $59 million. Whilst KMD noted that trading conditions ‘improved’ in the second-half, KMD also informed investors that ‘sporadic store closures’ took place in the third quarter due to Covid infections.
2.8bn shares were traded, worth $7.2bn. 675 stocks rose, 616 fell & 405 finished unchanged.
In the US, consumer prices data is released with the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book.
Originally published by Divik Nigam – (Author), CommSec
