ASX ends lower; Iluka Resources and Evolution Mining tumble
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The news: The Australian sharemarket ended lower as miners continued to decline off the back of quarterly results and analyst downgrades.
The benchmark ASX 200 fell 0.61% to end at 8,378.7, with nine out of 11 sectors finishing in red.
Biggest news:
- ASX (-1.19%) — Apologised to settlement participants for a CHESS outage last year and announced it had allocated $1 million in credit rebate as a way to acknowledge the disruption it caused.
- Insignia Financial (2.03%) — Bain Capital lobbed a higher takeover bid for the company, matching CC Capital’s latest offer. Insignia also reported a 2.2% rise in funds under management and advice to $326.8 billion for the December quarter.
Analyst changes:
- Iluka Resources (-6.47%), Evolution Mining (-3.91%) — Led a broad selloff across ASX miners after they were hit by downgrades from Citi and Macquarie.
- Paladin Energy (-0.11%) — UBS downgraded its rating on the uranium miner, calling the stock 'fully priced' after a 10% surge on Wednesday.
- Beach Energy (2.7%) — UBS and Bell Potter upgraded their price targets on the oil and gas producer, after it reported a growth in sales and revenue during the December quarter.
Other news:
- Fortescue (-2.15%) — Recorded its highest ever half-year shipment volumes but its realised price of hematite and net debt missed analyst expectations.
- Monadelphous (-1.06%) — Was awarded new construction and maintenance contracts from Rio Tinto valued at $150 million.
- Ampol (-0.84%) — Flagged lower earnings for the 2024 financial year after a weaker performance at its Lytton refinery.
- Coronado Global Resources (ended flat) — Reported an uptick in production during the 2024 calendar year, but a decline in group revenue.
- Santos (ended flat) — Reported a slight drop in production but lifted sales volumes during the December quarter, helping it achieve full-year guidance.
- Netwealth (1.67%) — Had record net inflows in the December quarter, lifting its funds under administration to $101.6 billion.
- Myer (6.08%), Premier Investments (-0.74%) — Shareholders of the two retail groups approved Myer's acquisition of Premier's apparel brands business at their respective extraordinary general meetings today.
The Australian dollar is buying 62.73 US cents.
What’s ahead: Overnight will see the release of the latest US retail sales and unemployment claim figures.
