ASX falls as supermarkets drag
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The news: The Australian sharemarket closed lower as the market reacted to a deluge of corporate earnings results.
The numbers: The benchmark ASX 200 fell 0.66% to 7,608.4, with seven out of 11 sectors finishing in red on Wednesday.
The worst performing sector was consumer staples, down 4.26%, followed by materials (-1.41%), and telecommunications services (-1.08%).
The consumer staples sector’s largest company Woolworths plunged 6.77%. The supermarket announced the retirement of CEO Brad Banducci today, just days after he walked out of an interview with the ABC's Four Corners program. Woolworths also posted a loss during the first half of the financial year.
Coles’ share price also fell 4.09% while Endeavour Group’s dropped 3.33%
On the materials side, big miners fell including BHP (-2.55%), Fortescue (-3.51%), Rio Tinto (-2.03%) and Northern Star (-0.23%)
However, the worst performing stock was Corporate Travel Management, which tumbled 19.92% as the market digested the company’s half-year results. The company lowered its EBITDA guidance to $210 million to $230 million from $260 million. Citi analysts called it “clearly a messy result”.
The best performing sector was IT, up 2.23%, followed by utilities (1.27%) and healthcare (0.65%). Software company Wisetech was the best performing IT stock, up 10.78%, after it posted a lift in profit and dividend during the first half of the financial year. The company said statutory profit for the six months to December 2023 was up 8% to $118.2 million, while earnings rose 23% to $229.9 million.
The best performing stock overall was building material company CSR Limited that rose 17.43% before a pause in trading at 3.20pm. Bloomberg reported that French building materials producer Cie. de Saint-Gobain is exploring a potential acquisition of CSR.
Large utility companies were also up including Origin (2.19%), APA Group (1.56%), Mercury NZ (1.1%) and Meridian Energy (0.57%)
The Australian dollar is higher buying US65.65 cents.
The context: Thursday will see the US Federal Open Market Committee publish its meeting minutes.
Earnings season continues with APA Group, Auckland Airport, Block, Fortescue, IGO, Insignia, Lovisa, Medibank, Mineral Resources, Nine, Northern Star, Qantas, Qube, Regal Partners, Super Retail, and Tabcorp reporting results on Thursday.
