A slump in the local Materials sector weighed on the Aussie market after the ASX 200 finished at session lows, losing 75.8pts or 1.14 per cent to 6602.2. One sector and 31 stocks finished higher. Mining stocks fell most (down 2.8 per cent) after the price of most base metals fell on Friday. The Financials sector also shed 0.5 per cent, with the big four banks all posting losses.
In company news, EML Payments (EML) shed 24.6 per cent and was the worst performer today after it announced the surprise departure of its Managing Director & CEO Tom Cregan. EML has appointed Ms Emma Shand, who has ’25 years’ global experience’, including ’16 years in senior management roles’ with Nasdaq. EML says that its appointment of Ms Shand ‘follows the resignation of Mr Tom Cregan’.
Link Administration (LNK) climbed 0.3 per cent after saying that it is ‘unable to recommend’ Dye & Durham’s revised $4.57 per share proposal. LNK also flagged that its FY22 revenues are likely to be ‘slightly above guidance’. LNK expects its FY23 revenue to increase by a ‘low single digit percentage’ and its FY23 Operating EBITDA & EBIT annual growth to be around 9 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively.
Costa Group (CGC) entered a trading halt earlier this morning before releasing a market update. In the update, CGC outlined that ‘quality issues have been encountered due to weather events occurring over recent weeks’. CGC says that these weather events have ‘impacted pack out rates’. CGC was down around 12 per cent before it entered into a trading halt and finished the session 8.7 per cent lower.
We’ve created an infographic on some of the key events which impacted the Australian sharemarket over the past financial year. You can access the infographic here.
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2.6bn shares were traded, worth $4.7bn. 471 stocks rose, 879 fell & 368 finished unchanged.
No major economic data is due in the US tonight but later this week, the US Consumer Price Index – a measure of inflation – will be released. The US profit reporting season is set to kick-off unofficially with the major American banks handing down their results. An update on Australian jobs growth is due on Thursday and could see the unemployment rate ease to 3.8 per cent – a 48- year low.
Originally published by Divik Nigam – (Author), CommSec
