Following a slump on Wall St overnight, the Australian sharemarket finished the week off in negative territory, with the ASX 200 down by 95.9 points or 1.4 per cent, to 6747. Energy stocks fell the most (down 3 per cent) and Miners shed 2.3 per cent. Oil producers Woodside Petroleum (WDS), Santos (STO) & Beach Energy (BPT) all retreated by at least 2.4 per cent following a rather steep drop in the oil price overnight. The Big 4 banks were mixed but major miners like BHP Group (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RIO) fell by at least 1.8 per cent. Roughly 75 per cent of stocks in the index finished in negative territory.
Over the week, the Aussie market shed 2.1 per cent. In fact, all sectors posted weekly declines for the first time in three months, with the Property (down 4.6 per cent) & Healthcare (down 4.1 per cent) sectors falling the most. Financials fell for the fifth straight week after declining by 0.5 per cent.
The ASX 200 added to its losses following the Reserve Bank Governor’s appearance before a parliamentary committee this morning. The Governor said that the board will be considering a “25 basis point increase or a 50 basis point increase” at their next meeting. He also mentioned that inflation had “very quickly gone from being too low, to being too high”.
In economic news today, stronger-than-expected economic data from China – the world’s second-largest economy – was released. Industrial output rose 4.2 per cent (survey: 3.8 per cent) in August from a year earlier, suggesting that the economic recovery was able to sustain momentum. Retail sales edged up by 5.4 per cent (survey: 3.5 per cent) despite a deep property slump, protracted COVID curbs and softening demand.
In company news, Atlas Arteria (ALX) has completed the institutional component of its entitlement offer, raising gross proceeds of around $2.5 billion. ALX shares resumed trade, after entering into a trading halt earlier this week, following its agreement to acquire a majority interest in Chicago Skyway. ALX shares fell by 9.7 per cent.
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Healius (HLS) has announced that ‘Mr Robert Hubbard, Chair of the Board, has decided to step down due to health reasons’. HLS says that ‘the Board has unanimously elected Ms Jenny Macdonald as Rob’s successor, effective from Monday 19 September 2022’. HLS shares fell for the third straight day after losing 0.3 per cent today.
Boral (BLD) has announced that ‘Vik Bansal will commence as CEO & MD’ on 10 October 2022. Mr Bansal ‘succeeds Zlatko Todorcevski, whose departure was announced in June this year’.
In the US tonight, consumer sentiment data is released with capital flows data.
6.3bn shares were traded, worth $15.5bn. 488 stocks rose, 869 fell & 387 finished unchanged.
Originally published by Divik Nigam – (Author), CommSec
