ASX ends on third record close of the week; Ampol surges
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The news: The Australian sharemarket set a record close for the third time this week as Ampol led gains.
The benchmark ASX 200 rose 0.73% to end at 8,938.6, with nine out of 11 sectors finishing in green.
Energy (+1.1%) was the best performing sector of the day, spurred by Ampol’s (+7.7%) soaring share price after it announced it would acquire EG Group Australia for $1.1 billion.
The finance sector (+1.1%) also posted big gains as Commonwealth Bank (+0.6%), Westpac (+2.1%), NAB (+0.8%) and ANZ (+1.8%) all posted gains. A Morningstar analyst said ANZ’s new banking platform ANZ Plus platform appears to be put under review.
The materials sector (+1.1%) also lifted with BHP (+1.1%), Fortescue (+1.3%) and Rio Tinto (+1.4%) all posting gains.
Biggest movers:
- Baby Bunting (+40.5%) – Reported a more than four-fold lift in statutory profit in financial year 2025 amid record sales on the back of its ongoing store refurbishment program.
- Orora (+4.5%) – On Thursday, the packaging business announced it had achieved a more than four fold increase in net profit after tax in financial year 2025. UBS analysts raised their price target on the stock from $2.10 to $2.40.
- Ventia Services Group (+4.2%) – Announced an 11.9% increase in first-half NPATA for 2025 on Thursday. Macquarie analysts lifted their target price on the stock from $5.42 to $5.55, reflecting their revised earnings per share forecast.
- Temple & Webster (-11.7%) – Reported a more than five-fold full-year profit increase on Thursday, lifting the share price to a level described by UBS analysts as ‘extreme’.
- Amcor (-9.7%) – Reported a 13% rise in full-year net profit after tax, however June quarter earnings were lower than expected and FY26 earnings per share guidance was 1.5% below market consensus estimates.
Earnings news:
- Cochlear (+1%) – Reported a 1% rise in full-year underlying net profit to $391.6 million as implant revenue saw a double-digit percentage jump year on year.
- Mirvac (-0.9%) – Returned to statutory profit in financial year 2025 but EBIT from residential development as well as from commercial development missed UBS analyst expectations.
- HealthCo Healthcare and Wellness REIT (-1.2%) – Swung to a full-year loss as the fund continues efforts to re-tenant its 11 Healthscope hospitals after the private hospital owner fell into receivership earlier this year.
Other news:
- JB Hi-Fi (+0.4%) – Non-executive director Beth Laughton will retire at the end of October after 14 years in the role. Former Nick Scali and oOh!media chief financial officer Sheila Lines has joined the board.
- Betr (0%) – The federal government’s Takeovers Panel has declined to make a declaration of unacceptable circumstances over gambling company Betr's off-market takeover bid for ASX rival PointsBet (+0.8%). The panel has accepted several undertakings committed to by Betr.
What’s ahead:
- The US Census Bureau will release data on retail sales in July tonight at 10:30pm AEST.
- Earnings season continues next week with Ampol, BlueScope Steel, Lendlease Group, NAB all reporting on Monday.
