ASX closes lower amid broad declines
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The news: The Australian sharemarket finished lower as gains at the country’s largest lenders was offset by broad gains across almost all other sectors.
The benchmark ASX 200 fell 0.30% to end at 8,900.6 with nine out of the 11 sectors finishing in red.
The finance sector (+0.4%) was the best performing as Commonwealth Bank (+0.9%), Westpac (+0.8%), and NAB (+1%) finished higher. However, ANZ (-0.3%) finished lower after it was reported by Capital Brief on Monday that the bank was mulling cuts of up to 5,000 jobs.
The consumer discretionary sector (-1.9%) was the worst performing as a number of stocks including Wesfarmers (-2.9%) traded ex-dividend. The sector delivered strong returns over the August 2025 earnings season.
Biggest movers:
- PolyNovo (+10.3%) – Confirmed to the exchange that it is “well positioned to benefit from changes to the US outpatient reimbursement landscape” in response to a report in the Australian.
- NRW Holdings (+6.3%) – The construction and mining contractor agreed to buy engineering group Fredon Industries for an enterprise value of up to $200 million.
- Platinum Asset Management (-3.9%) – Told the exchange on Monday evening that a “large client” is set to redeem $580 million from some of its Platinum Trust funds and its mandate.
- Woolworths (-3.1%) – At its annual general meeting in October 2025, shareholders will vote on rating beef as a ‘high risk’ deforestation-linked commodity after the supermarket giant said it was low risk in its 2025 sustainability report. The stock traded ex-dividend today.
Executive and board moves:
- Brambles (+0.4%) – Announced that non-executive director Cameron McIntyre will step down from the board at the company's annual general meeting on 23 October, following his appointment as REA Group's next chief executive.
- Region Group (-0.4%) – On Monday evening, the shopping centre owner announced it had appointed Greg Chubb as its next CEO and managing director. He will begin in March 2026.
- Nick Scali (-1.1%) – Appointed former Allianz Australia CEO Niran Peiris as an independent non-executive director of the company, effective immediately.
What’s ahead:
- The Institute for Supply Management will release manufacturing purchasing managers’ index data for August at midnight AEST.
- The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release gross domestic product and other national accounts data for the June quarter tomorrow at 11:30am AEST.
