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Market Wrap

ASX closes higher as IDP education surges

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The news: The Australian sharemarket finished higher as gains in the finance and real estate sectors offset losses in the energy and healthcare sectors.

The benchmark ASX 200 rose 0.22% to end at 8,980 with six out of the 11 sectors finishing in green.

The finance sector (+1.1%) was the best performing, buoyed by gains for Commonwealth Bank (+2.1%), Westpac (+1.3%), NAB (+2.4%) and ANZ (+1%).

Meanwhile, real estate sector (+1%) also gained as Goodman Group (+2%) and Scentre Group (+1%) finished higher. Goodman reported a 170% year-on-year increase in underlying net profit to $30.2 million in FY25.

Biggest movers:

  • IDP Education (+29.7%) – Posted a 58% drop in adjusted net profit as student placement volumes declined 29% year on year. However, the revenue and cash outcome was better than expected.
  • Lifestyle Communities (+14.9%) – Swung from a $50 million profit in FY24 to a $195.3 million loss in FY25 following a $136 million write down.
  • Eagers Automotive (+12%) – Reported an 8.3% increase in first-half underlying operating profit to $197.7 million compared to the previous corresponding period.
  • Qantas (+9.1%) – Announced a 28.3% increase in full-year statutory profit after tax amid strong demand across all market segments and growth in passenger numbers.
  • Telix Pharmaceuticals (-18.8%) – Received a complete response letter from the US Food and Drug Administration, outlining supply chain concerns over one of its novel imaging agents.
  • Nine Entertainment (-12.2%) – Appointed former Ramsay Health Care and Coca-Cola Amatil finance chief Martyn Roberts as its new chief financial officer, effective 8 September.
  • Ramsay Health Care (-10.5%) – Australia's largest private hospital operator reported a slide in annual profit, weighed down by a $291 million impairment on its UK business.
  • Macquarie Technology Group (-8.2%) – Full-year profit climbed 5.6% year on year to $34.85 million, in line with guidance, and has flagged heavy capital expenditure on the development of its new IC3 SuperWest data centre.
  • South32 (-7.2%) – Climbed to a full-year net profit of USD210 million ($323 million) after a USD205 million loss in the previous year, having increased its copper and aluminium output.

Other earnings news:

  • Lynas Rare Earths – Announced plans to raise about $750 million through a fully underwritten pro-rata placement and a further $75 million through a non-underwritten share purchase plan. Also posted a 91% fall in full-year net profit despite improved revenue. Entered a trading halt this morning.
  • Wesfarmers (+0.4%) – Full-year net profit after tax came in 14.4% higher than in FY24 as the conglomerate attributed sales and earnings growth to low prices and offers at its Bunnings and Kmart stores.
  • IGO (-4.7%) – Posted a worse-than-expected full-year loss of $955 million.
  • TPG Telecom (-0.6%) – Reported a surge in first-half statutory profit to $32 million, from $7 million in the prior corresponding period, amid mobile subscriber growth and cost cutting.

Other companies that reported earnings were Air New Zealand (-0.9%), Atlas Arteria (-2.2%), Platinum Asset Management (-0.6%), Perpetual Group (-3.3%), Sandfire Resources (-1.5%), Cromwell Property Group (+3.5%), and Mineral Resources (-1.6%).

Other news:

  • ASX (+0.2%) – The RBA payments system board flagged that the ASX has made “limited progress” to address the cental bank's “fundamental concerns” regarding operational resilience and risk management.

What’s ahead:

  • The US Bureau of Economic Analysis will release gross domestic product data for the second quarter of 2025 at 10:30pm AEST.
  • The US Department of Labor will release weekly data on unemployment claims at 10:30pm AEST.

By Brandon How