ASX flat as investors pull back on real estate
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The news: The Australian sharemarket finished flat after a mixed session with investors pulling out of real estate ahead of a slew of central bank monetary policy decisions.
The numbers: The benchmark ASX 200 ended up 0.07% to 7,675.8, with six out of 11 sectors finishing in green.
The best performing sector was financials, up 0.56%, followed by materials (0.25%) and utilities (0.22%). Pacific Current Group was one of the biggest gainers today as it finished up 7.96% after it announced that GQG had acquired three of its US boutiques for $108.56 million late on Friday. GQG ended up 0.48%.
On the materials side, shares in South32 rose 4.67% despite today announcing it had suspended its Northern Territory manganese mine operations due to cyclone damage.
While iron ore prices continued to fall, BHP rose 0.05%, as did Rio Tinto (0.23%), Mineral Resources (0.47%) and Bluescope Steel (0.81%), after fresh China industrial production data indicated some signs of economic recovery.
AREITs took the biggest hit, down 1.87%, followed by energy (-0.34%) and healthcare (-0.16%). Largest real estate company Goodman Group was one of the worst performers across the sector, down 3.79%, while Scentre Group and Stockland also dropped down 1.8% and 0.72% respectively.
Elsewhere, ARN Media finished 5.16% higher while Southern Cross Media Group was up 3.65% after Southern Cross announced its chair Rob Murray would step down as a director. It also said it would re-enage with ARN and Anchorage Capital Group on the consortium’s enhanced takeover bid.
Superloop lost some of its gains from last week as it fell 6.38% after an announcement that said it had directed Aussie Broadband to reduce its shareholding as it acquired too many Superloop shares without regulatory approval. Aussie Broadband on the other hand was up 0.28%.
The Australian dollar is higher buying US65.63 cents
The context: This week will see a slew of monetary policy decisions being made globally starting with the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank of Japan on Tuesday, followed by the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England on Thursday.
Thursday will also see Australia’s latest unemployment rate and Friday will see the US publish its latest flash manufacturing purchasing managers’ index figures. European leaders will gather on Friday for the Euro Summit to discuss the region’s economic situation.
