ASX up as AGL investors energised
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The news: The Australian sharemarket closed higher on Thursday, following strong corporate earnings reports, but is still below last week’s record high.
The numbers: The benchmark ASX 200 rose 0.3% to 7,639.2 with six out of 11 sectors finishing in green.
The IT sector was the top performer at 1.18%, followed by utilities (0.97%), consumer discretionary (0.43%), financial (0.88%) and AREITs (0.84%).
The worst performing sector was energy, down 0.52%. Energy giant Santos slipped 0.81%, followed by Woodside (-0.22%), and Ampol (-0.19%).
The best performing stock today was AGL which increased 10.2%. The energy giant’s share price skyrocketed following its earnings announcement that it posted a four-fold increase in underlying net profit for the first half of the financial year.
News Corporation was the second best performer on the overall sharemarket as it gained 6.3% following its strong earnings results for its Dow Jones, REA Group and books divisions.
While REA Group posted a solid lift in first half earnings with net profit up 22%, its share price fell 3.93% and was the bottom performer for the ASX 200. Jarden analysts said the company’s increase to cost guidance implied a much higher second half cost skew than consensus expectations along with a higher exit rate into FY25.
The context: The ASX 200’s rally was led by positive earnings reports alongside Wall Street’s gain due to AI stocks soaring following strong earnings. AI chipmaker Nvidia is on the verge of overtaking Amazon’s market valuation as its market capitalisation has rocketed 40% since the start of the year.
Meanwhile, the US unemployment figures will be announced tomorrow along with earnings from Boral and Megaport.
