The local sharemarket rose by as much as 0.6 per cent in early trade, but erased its gains and wrapped the rather volatile trading session in negative territory, with the ASX 200 down 0.34 per cent or 22.8 points, to 6645. This was in part driven by a fall in US futures, after traders ended the session overnight on a rather muted note, given the Columbus Day holiday. Locally, nine sectors and 57 per cent of stocks in the ASX 200 managed to finish in negative
territory. Oil producers Woodside Energy (WDS), Santos (STO) and Beach Energy (BPT) slumped for a second straight day and dragged the Energy sector 1.6 per cent lower, driven in part by falling oil prices overnight. A decline in the rate-sensitive Tech & Property sectors also weighed on the market.
Gold miners such as Ramelius Resources (RMS), Evolution Mining (EVN), De Grey Mining (DEG) and Sayona Mining (SYA) lost ground and were some of the poorer performers in the market today. This comes after the gold futures price slid 2 per cent overnight, its biggest fall in around three months.
Property developer Mirvac (MGR) slipped 2 per cent after it announced the retirement of both its Chair, John Mulcahy, and CEO, Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz. While Dr Mulcahy’s retirement was announced at MGR’s 2021 annual general meeting, Susan LloydHurwitz’s retirement is effective from 30 June 2023.
Baby Bunting (BBN) shares fell 20.5 per cent after it announced that ‘some input costs rose quicker than retail prices’ in its annual general meeting today. The retailer also mentioned that ‘competitor pricing’ is impacting its ‘top selling items’, and that a recent loyalty program it introduced has reduced its ‘gross margin percentage’ by 60 basis points more than expected. Over the year, BBN plans to recover its earnings, and aims to open 5 new stores in FY23.
Explosives manufacturer Orica Limited (ORI) was amongst the best performing stocks in the ASX 200, after it rose 4.4 per cent. The company announced the departure of its CFO, Mr Christopher Davis, effective 30 December 2022, and has appointed Mrs Kim Kerr as the CFO effective immediately. The company also said that its full-year EBIT is ‘expected to be slightly ahead of market expectations’.
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Tomorrow, Commonwealth Bank (CBA) and CSL Limited (CSL) will both hold their annual general meetings. Regis Resources (RRL) will also trade ex-dividend, with their 2 cent-per-share dividend scheduled to be paid to eligible investors on October 28.
Today, 3.2bn shares were traded, worth $6.3bn. 528 stocks rose, 799 fell & 402 finished unchanged.
In the US tonight, the business optimism index is released with the economic optimism index, consumer inflation expectations and the weekly chain store sales index.
Originally published by Divik Nigam – (Author) CommSec
