Stocks to watch on the Australian stock exchange:
CBA – COMMONWEALTH BANK – up 27 cents, or 0.4 per cent, at $70.80
Commonwealth Bank chief financial officer Rob Jesudason has resigned after less than a year to become chief operating officer of the firm behind the world’s fifth-biggest cryptocurrency.
DOW – DOWNER EDI – up 16 cents, or 2.2 per cent, at $7.31
Downer EDI has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract worth approximately $150 million by First Solar for an 87MW solar farm west of Gulgong, in NSW.
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ELD – ELDERS – up 30 cents, or 3.7 per cent, at $8.40
Agribusiness group Elders has improved its half-year net profit by eight per cent to $41.4 million, helped by higher fertiliser and crop protection product sales, and its revenue was up two per cent to $749.7 million.
HSO – HEALTHCOPE – up 11 cents, or 4.5 per cent, at $2.58
Healthscope has received a $2.50-a-share takeover bid from Brookfield Asset Management that values the hospital operator at $4.35 billion, which is higher than the $2.36-a-share bid by a consortium of superannuation and capital funds.
NBL – NONI B – in a trading halt, last traded at $2.35
SFH – SPECIALTY FASHION – up 22 cents, or 57.9 per cent, at 60 cents
Noni B Group is buying Specialty Fashion Group’s Katies, Millers, Crossroads, Autograph and Rivers clothing chains for $31 million.
TLS – TELSTRA CORP – down 16 cents, or five per cent, at $3.04
Telstra has forecast earnings to be at the lower end of its $10.1 to $10.6 billion full year guidance range and says pressure will continue in 2019.
