The Australian sharemarket faded from this morning’s stronger start, with the ASX 200 lifting just 4.1pts or 0.06 per cent to 6,606.3. A strong rebound in Financial stocks, together with gains from Woolworths (WOW), Coles (COL) and CSL Limited (CSL) helped the Aussie market stay positive, five sectors (of 11) and 66 stocks (of 200) finished higher.
In economic news, the National Australia Bank (NAB) business confidence index fell from +6.3 points in May to a 6-month low of +1.4 points in June (long-run average: +5.4 points). In terms of costs and price pressures (inflation), purchase cost growth (up 4.8 per cent) and labour cost growth (up 3.6 per cent) both hit record highs in June.
The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan confidence surveys were released today. Sentiment, as measured by ANZ and Roy Morgan, fell by 2.5 per cent last week to 81.6 points. Notably, consumer inflation expectations over the next two years hit a 15-week high of 6.0 per cent. Westpac’s consumer sentiment index fell by 3 per cent in July, with confidence sliding by 19.7 per cent since December.
In company news, Zip Co (ZIP) added 6 per cent after it terminated its proposed acquisition of fellow buy-now-pay-later company Sezzle (SZL). The mutual agreement to terminate the acquisition is on the back of current macroeconomic and market conditions. ZIP will pay US$11 million as a result of the termination. SZL shares had their worst day since August 2012 after sliding by 38.6 per cent.
Eagers Automotive (APE), a car dealership owner, has climbed 3.3 per cent after providing a market update. In the update, APE says that it expects 1HCY22 statutory profit before tax (PBT) to be around $246 million and its 1HCY22 underlying operating profit before tax to be around $195 million. Both its statutory and operating PBT are above guidance that APE issued in May.
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Core Lithium (CXO), an Aussie-based lithium and copper explorer, shed 7.1 per cent today and had its worst day in around two and a half weeks. This comes after the explorer provided an update on its NT-based Finniss Lithium Project. CXO increased its mineral resource estimate by 28 per cent, and extended the life of the Finniss Project mine by two years.
Mydeal.com.au (MYD) shares posted a modest gain of 0.5 per cent after the online marketplace announced an FY22 update. MYD says that its gross sales grew by 24.8 per cent and revenues increased by 70.9 per cent, with both metrics being ‘ahead of guidance’. MYD’s cash balance at the fiscal-year-end is $32.4 million.
3bn shares were traded, worth $7.5bn. 493 stocks rose, 873 fell & 356 finished unchanged.
In the US, the NFIB small business optimism index is due.
Originally published by Divik Nigam – (Author), CommSec
