ASX ends flat; Zip soars on FY26 guidance hike

The news: The Australian sharemarket ended marginally lower as tech companies extended gains from Thursday but consumer discretionary stocks retreated.

The benchmark ASX 200 index fell 0.09% to 8,946.9, with six of the 11 sectoral indices in negative territory.

Biggest movers:

• Zip (+13.7%) — Upgraded guidance for its FY26 group cash earnings before interest and tax to be at least $260 million and expects a group revenue margin of around 8%.
• Temple & Webster (-6.5%) — Led losses among discretionary stocks, which was the worst performing segment (-0.8%). Wesfarmers (-1.6%) and Harvey Norman (-3.0%) were also lower.

Other news:

• Viva Energy (halted) — Said its Geelong refinery is producing diesel at 80% of capacity and petrol at 60% after a fire burned at the facility from late on Wednesday evening until midday on Thursday.
• Paladin Energy (+2.8%) — Hiked its full-year production guidance following better-than-expected performance during the first nine months of FY26.
• IAG (-0.1%) — The ACCC has commenced an in-depth Phase 2 review of its proposed $1.4 billion takeover of RAC Insurance.
• AGL (flat) — Inked a binding foundation gas sales agreement with Amplitude Energy over a four-year term.
• NRW Holdings (+2.2%) — Announced subsidiary Fredon has secured around $160 million in contracts for electrical, mechanical and design projects across the infrastructure and health sectors.