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Market Wrap

ASX finishes flat on first day of FY26

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The news: The Australian sharemarket finished flat. Losers on the benchmark ASX 200 were led by HMC Capital, which announced the departure of its energy transition platform lead, while gainers were led by biotech Mesoblast.

The ASX 200 fell -0.01% to end at 8541.1, with six of the 11 sectors finishing in the red.

Biggest movers:

  • HMC Capital (-17.3%) – Announced the departure of managing director, head of energy transition Angela Karl and a one month delay to its acquisition of French renewable energy company Neoen’s assets in Victoria.
  • SGH (-2.9%) – Boral’s chief executive and managing director Vik Bansal intends to step down from his role at the construction materials and building products supplier in early 2026. He will then join the board of parent company SGH.
  • Mesoblast (+11.2%) – The biotech said it had aligned with the US Food and Drug Administration on key items for its biologics licence application for its ischemic heart failure treatment Revascor.
  • Insignia Financial (+5.2%) – US private equity firm CC Capital is working towards making a binding bid for the wealth manager.
  • Big Banks – Commonwealth Bank (-1.2%) finished lower, NAB (+0.9%) finished higher and Westpac (+0%) finished flat. ANZ (+2.5%) also finished higher putting its market cap back above Macquarie Group (-1%) after slipping yesterday.

Deals news:

  • Seven West Media (+3.5%) – Claims to be the largest regional commercial television broadcaster in Australia after completing its acquisition of Southern Cross Media Group’s (+0.9%) television licenses and associated assets across several regional areas for $3.75 million.
  • Objective Corporation (+0.6%) – The public sector software provider is set to acquire Kiwi rival Isovist for NZD5 million ($4.63 million).
  • Downer (+0.2%) – Agreed to sell its 49% interest in the Keolis Downer joint venture to French transportation company Keolis Group for an enterprise value of $132 million.
  • Cleanaway (0%) – Completed its $110 million acquisition of City of Melbourne Council-owned waste and recycling business Citywide Service Solutions.
  • The Reject Shop (0%) – Suspended trading on the ASX after a $259 million takeover by Toronto-listed dollar store Dollarama took legal effect.

Executive and board moves:

  • TPG Telecom (+0.6%) – Vodafone executive Serpil Timuray has resigned from TPG Telecom’s board after a two year stint.
  • Woolworths (+0.4%) – Announced a slew of management changes to realign its focus on fresh food and its own-brand product line. The new appointments will report to Woolworths retail managing director Annette Karantoni, who was appointed in February 2025.
  • Metrics Credit Partners – Managing partner Graham McNamara intends to retire on 31 March 2026 after more than 14 years as a founding shareholder of the non-bank corporate lender and alternative asset manager. The firm has three ASX-listed funds.

Other news:

  • Medibank (+2%) – Share price increased for a second day in a row after rival health insurer Bupa copped a $35 million fine and admitted to misleading and deceptive conduct following an ACCC investigation.
  • IAG (-0.6%) – Raised its full-year insurance profit guidance with natural perils costs estimated to be around $200 million lower than the company's annual allowance.

What’s ahead:

  • European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde, US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda and Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey will participate in a panel discussion at the ECB Forum on Central Banking tonight at 11:30pm.
  • S&P Global will release June figures for the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for Spain, Germany, France, and the UK this evening.
  • The Institute for Supply Management will release June figures for the US purchasing managers’ index at midnight.
  • The US Bureau of Labor Statistics will release job openings and labor turnover survey data for June at midnight.
  • The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release data on building approvals and retail trade in May tomorrow at 11:30am.

By Brandon How