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ASX closes higher; ANZ leads banking rally, Temple & Webster plunges 33%

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The news: The Australian sharemarket ended higher as the big banks powered the ASX 200 to its second straight day of gains.

The benchmark ASX 200 rose 0.32% to end at 9,043.5, even as seven of 11 sectors finished in the red.

Following a raft of earnings results this morning, big four lender ANZ saw the largest share price jump, after reporting a 6% increase in first-quarter cash profit.

Origin Energy, Northern Star and Breville were other notable winners on earnings day, while AMP, Temple & Webster and Pro Medicus took massive falls.

Biggest movers:

  • ANZ (+8.5%) – Led a rally in banking stocks after its Q1 result impressed analysts. Commonwealth Bank (+5.4), Westpac (+1.8) and NAB (+2.3) all ended higher.
  • Temple & Webster (-32.6%) – Reported a 36% drop in first-half net profit after tax to $5.8 million, missing average forecasts.
  • AMP (-26.7%) – Posted an 11% decline in full-year statutory profit to $133 million, short of average forecasts of $192 million, as the company dealt with costs linked to the settlement of two legacy class actions.
  • Pro Medicus (-24%) – First-half revenue missed consensus expectations amid slightly higher operational costs and misestimations regarding contract delivery.
  • Polynovo (-7.5%) – Damage caused by a fire at an R&D facility in November 2025 was fully insured and it has received a written note of indemnity. The rebuild of the factory is expected to be completed in September 2026.

Other earnings news:

  • Northern Star Resources (+4%) – Posted a half-year statutory profit of $714 million, a 41% increase year on year.
  • Origin Energy (+3.9%) – Half-year statutory profit fell 45.2% year-on-year driven by lower realised liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices and volume. This was in line with expectations.
  • Breville (+1.7%) – Reported a 0.7% year-on-year increase in half-year net profit to $98.2 million against the "incrementally challenging" backdrop of US tariffs.
  • Paladin Energy (+0.7%) – On a group basis, including non-controlling interests, the company recorded a net loss after tax of USD6.6 million ($9.275 million), improved from a USD15.1 million loss a year ago.
  • Orora (+0.5%) – Reported a 32.2% increase year-on-year in underlying half-year net profit to $77.8 million.
  • ASX (-1.7%) – Posted a first-half statutory net profit of $263.6 million, up 8.3% compared to the prior corresponding period.
  • South32 (-3%) – Delivered a 29% leap in first-half net profit to USD464 million and reiterated its FY26 production and unit cost guidance.

Other news:

  • Lendlease (-0.2%) – Tony Lombardo will step down as Lendlease Group's CEO and managing director in August 2026, following the release of the company's full-year earnings, as he relocates to Southeast Asia to pursue a new career opportunity.
  • Humm Group (-0.7%) – Founder Andrew Abercrombie will step down as chair, effective immediately, "to avoid any perception of bias of conflict" following months of shareholder backlash.

What’s ahead:

  • Westpac, Cochlear, GQG Partners, Nick Scali, and BWP Group are among the companies that are reporting earnings on Friday.
  • The UK Office of National Statistics will release gross domestic product data for December on Thursday at 6:00pm AEDT.
  • The US Department of Labor will release weekly unemployment claims data on Friday at 12:30am AEDT.


By Brandon How