Movement in the local sharemarket today was largely driven by a sharp sell-off seen on Wall Street on Friday, as the ASX 200 traded in negative territory for the entirety of the session and finished with a decline of 94.4 points or 1.4 per cent, to 6664.4. All sectors and roughly 77 per cent of stocks in the ASX 200 lost ground. Major miners BHP Group (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RIO) fell by at least 2.3 per cent and dragged the broader mining sector 2.1 per cent lower. Financial stocks snapped three-straight days of gains after the sector shed 1.2 per cent, weighed by a 4.2 per cent slump in shares of Macquarie Group (MQG) – its biggest decline this month. Lithium miners were amongst the best performers today after the lithium price hit fresh all-time-highs.
The worst performer today was Adbri (ABC), after its shares fell by 22 per cent. This comes after the building material manufacturer said that ‘extreme rainfall events and ongoing inflationary headwinds’ have ‘continued to impact margins’. It also flagged that ‘out-of-cycle price increases’ have ‘not met ongoing cost inflation’. ABC’s Board also ‘determined that it is an appropriate time for a change in leadership’, and has replaced CEO Nick Miller with
interim CEO Mark Irwin. The Board believes that ‘the appointment of Mark Irwin as interim CEO’ will help ABC implement some initiatives designed in response to the current operating conditions.
CSL Limited (CSL) has advised shareholders that it expects its FY23 profits – including results from its Vifor acquisition – to be between $2.7 billion – $2.8 billion, representing a 13 per cent – 18 per cent growth on FY22. This also incorporates the $2.4 billion – $2.5 billion FY23 profit guidance it provided previously for its underlying business. CSL fell 1.3 per cent amid a broader sell-off.
Endeavour Group (EDV), the operator of Dan Murphy’s and BWS stores, released its first-quarter trading update. Its total sales rose by 3.1 per cent over the year to $3 billion. Its retail sales slipped by 6.2 per cent to $2.5 billion, and Hotel sales nearly doubled to $538 million. EDV says that its results reflect the impacts of ‘lockdowns in NSW & Victoria in Q1 FY22’, which had a ‘negative impact on Hotels’ and an ‘inverse effect on Retail’. EDV shares rose 1.5 per cent.
Costa Group (CGC) shares fell 13.4 per cent after it advised of production challenges and higher labour and spraying costs.
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Star Entertainment Group (SGR) has received a $100 million fine from the NSW Independent Casino Commission, and had its New South Wales casino licence suspended from Friday. SGR shares resumed trade towards the tail-end of the session, and rose by 1.5 per cent.
Today, 2.8bn shares were traded, worth $5.8bn. 452 stocks rose, 917 fell & 411 finished unchanged.
In the US tonight, the New York Empire State manufacturing index and monthly budget statement are both released.
Originally published by Divik Nigam – (Author), CommSec
