Latest News
Local shares are edging lower heading towards lunch with the ASX 200 sliding 12 points or 0.2% to 5717, despite Wall Street closing higher on a late rally over reports that US economic advisor Larry Kudlow believes there is an opportunity for the US and China to “turn a new page” in relation to trade talks at the upcoming G20 summit in Argentina this weekend.
Losses for materials are weighing most on the broader market. For the miners, the heavyweights BHP and Rio Tinto (RIO) are the main drags as metals prices remain subdued. BHP is down 1.5% while RIO is falling 2.8%. Gold miners are also weaker with Saracen Minerals (SAR) 9% lower and Newcrest Mining (NCM) declining 1.3%.
Consumer staples are the other decliner with weakness in supermarket Coles Group (COL), sliding 2.8%. The healthcare is the most improved subindex so far, led by advances in CSL Ltd and ResMed (RMD) of more than 1% each.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) report, released today, recommending to extend its product intervention powers to regulate the buy-now paylater industry. ASIC reconfirmed Afterpay Touch (APT) is not regarded as credit under the National Credit Code with the shares jumping 7.5%.
Collins Food Ltd (CKF), which owns and operates Taco Bell, Sizzler and KFC in Australia, announced a 27.6% lift to first half revenue to $411 million with KFC same store sales growth of 3.1%. CKF is also maintaining a positive growth outlook for FY19 with the share price is up 5%.
Media and advertising firm Ooh!Media (OML) is advancing 5.5% on reports that its newly acquired outdoor advertising business, Adshel, is about to secure a 10 year contract with the Brisbane City Council. Building products maker CSR Limited (CSR) has confirmed the sale of its glass business, Viridian Glass to a private equity firm for ~$155 million. CSR shares are up 0.3%.
The Aussie dollar remains mostly unmoved from yesterday as it buys 72.3 US cents with US-China trade sentiment one of the main instigators of moves in the currency.
So far, 1.3B units have been traded worth $1.8B with 450 stocks higher, 482 lower and 312 unchanged.
Published by James Tao, CommSec