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Market Wrap

ASX falls; Life360 and Mineral Resources plunge

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The news: The Australian sharemarket continued to fall, tracking Wall Street losses, with Life360 and Mineral Resources taking the biggest hits.

The benchmark ASX 200 dropped 0.75% to end at 8,193.4, with 10 out of 11 sectors finishing in red.

Biggest movers:

  • Life360 (-7.44%) — Posted an 18% year-on-year rise in Q3 revenue, but Morningstar said its share price was overvalued.
  • Mineral Resources (-7.2%) — Is putting its Bald Hill mine into care and maintenance due to low lithium prices.
  • Paladin Energy (8.58%) — Analysts called Tuesday’s sell-off “outsized” after the uranium miner slashed its full-year production guidance.
  • James Hardie (6.19%) — Its second-quarter NPAT was 8% ahead of consensus forecasts.

Other news:

  • Tabcorp (-5.88%) — Has paid a $262,000 penalty for taking online in-play sports bets, which is illegal in Australia.
  • Magellan Financial Group (-4.8%) — Long standing COO and CFO Kirsten Morton has resigned and will leave at the end of the year.
  • NIB Holdings (-4.36%) — Analysts have made downgrades on the health insurer, after it reported a first-half operating loss and set lower-than-expected full-year guidance.
  • WiseTech (-1.32%) — Is facing a shareholder class action over allegedly misleading conduct in its financial guidance between August 2019 and February 2020 linked to its rapid acquisition of companies.
  • Fletcher Building (-0.69%) — Has finalised an industry response to address plumbing failures in homes fitted with pipes provided by its subsidiary Iplex Australia.
  • Contact Energy (1.3%) — Will build a new geothermal plant as part of plans to redevelop its 1950's-era Wairakei geothermal power station.
  • Brickworks (2.36%) — Bell Potter has upgraded its rating on the company from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’ as Australia approaches a potential interest rate pivot point.

Earnings and guidance:

  • Insignia Financial (-4.8%) — Announced it will target around $200 million per year in cost savings by 2030 and revised down its net revenue guidance for its advice segment.
  • Light & Wonder (-4.6%) — Reaffirmed its full-year guidance and downplayed the impact of its copyright battle with rival group Aristocrat Leisure.
  • Sims (-4.65%) — Flagged that it expects earnings in the second quarter to be in line with the first quarter as market challenges persist.
  • Medibank Private (-1.07%) — Announced that it has seen “strong growth” in both resident and non-resident insurance segments for the first quarter.
  • Hotel Property Investments (-0.83%) — Upgraded its full-year distribution guidance following a recent debt refinancing and cost saving forecast.
  • CBA (-0.42%) — Reported flat year-on-year profit for Q1, as it flagged the continued impact of cost-of-living pressure on economic growth.
  • Aristocrat Leisure (2.6%) — Reported a double-digit rise in full-year normalised profit and declared an improved final dividend

The Australian dollar is buying 65.34 US cents.

What’s ahead: Thursdays events include:

  • Offshore: US CPI figures released overnight.
  • Earnings: Graincorp, Nufarm, Infratil, Xero.
  • AGMs: Cettire, Computershare, Flight Centre, Goodman Group, GYG, Ingenia Communities, Seven Group Holdings and Superloop.
  • Economic data: Labour force.

By Jassmyn Goh