ASX ends 1.9% higher as tech rebounds; Web Travel, Car Group rally
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The news: The Australian sharemarket finished higher as tech stocks tracked Friday's resurgence on Wall Street.
The benchmark ASX 200 climbed 1.9% to end at 8,870.1, with all 11 sectors in positive territory.
The tech sector surged 3.3% as NextDC (+5.4%), Codan (+4.4%), Technology One (+3.7%) and WiseTech Global (+3.6%) bounced back from last week's selloff.
Gold miners rallied as spot prices ticked higher, with Resolute Mining (+13.1%) and Ora Banda Mining (+12.2%) both seeing double-digit gains.
Biggest movers:
- Web Travel Group (+18.6%) – Reaffirmed FY26 guidance after seeing shares drop 30% on Friday following news that its Spanish subsidiary is being audited.
- Challenger (-3.6%) – Offered to acquire 25% of non-bank lender Pepper Money, which saw its shares surge 28.4%.
Earnings:
- Car Group (+9.9%) – Reported a 16% lift in first-half profit and lifted its interim dividend to 42.5 cents per share.
- Argo Investments (+1.2%) – Posted an 8% higher first-half profit but flagged an "extremely unpredictable" investing environment.
- Future Generation Global (+4.2%) – Declared a 4 cents-per-share final dividend for 2025, taking full-year dividends to 8 cents per share, a 49% increase year on year.
Other news:
- Seek (-1.3%) – Revealed a $356 million post-tax impairment charge relating to its investment in Chinese careers platform Zhaopin.
- Bravura Solutions (+29.4%) – Upgraded FY26 revenue, cash earnings and capital investment guidance ahead of its half-year results on Wednesday.
What’s ahead:
- Region Group and Amotiv are among the ASX companies set to report half-year earnings on Tuesday morning.
- Westpac will release its monthly consumer confidence report at 10:30am AEDT.
- NAB's business confidence report for January is due at 11:30am AEDT.
- The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release new building permits and private house approvals data at 11:30am AEDT.
