Australian shares open lower as bourse operator ASX sheds 9%
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More news: Australian shares edged lower at the open, as bourse operator ASX led losses. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 9.2 points, or 0.1%, to 8,834.5 at 10:30am AEST. Seven of the 11 sectoral indices were in positive territory.
ASX dropped 9.2% after flagging additional operating expenses of up to $35 million in the 2026 financial year due to ASIC's recently announced inquiry into the company. The selloff also comes after an error by the sharemarket operator on Wednesday temporarily slashed more than $400 million from TPG Telecom's share price.
Media giant News Corp (-4.9%) and its real estate platform REA Group (-2.9%) were also down after ending as two of the best performers on Wednesday following positive full-year results. Wealth manager AMP fell 2.4% after reporting a 4.9% decline in half-year net profit this morning.
Gold miner Westgold Resources was the best performer on the ASX 200, climbing 6.2% after releasing its FY26 production outlook. Biotech Neuren Pharmaceuticals added 6.1% after reporting a 14% increase in quarterly US sales of its Retts syndrome drug Daybue.
Australian shares to start lower after Apple paces Wall Street rally
The news: Australian shares are due to fall at the open, even as Wall Street stocks ended higher, buoyed by another slate of better-than-expected second-quarter earnings results.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEST:
- ASX futures: down 27 points to 8,779 points
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.18%, S&P 500 up 0.73% and Nasdaq up 1.21%
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.18%, DAX up 0.33% and FTSE 100 up 0.24%
- Spot gold: down 0.33% to USD3,369 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent down 0.09% to USD66.83/bbl and US WTI down 1.37% to USD64.27/bbl
- AUD: up 0.54% to 65.07 US cents
- Bitcoin: up 0.08% to USD115,184.
The context: The three major US stock indices all closed higher overnight, led by a 1.3% jump by the tech-heavy Nasdaq.
Apple climbed 5.1% after reports that US President Donald Trump will announce a USD100 billion ($154 billion) commitment from Apple toward manufacturing in the US.
Elsewhere, McDonald's rose 3% after second-quarter sales topped estimates, while cloud networking company Arista Networks soared 17.5% after projecting better-than-expected third-quarter revenue.
In the local market, wealth manager AMP is set to report its half-year result this morning. Gambling company Light & Wonder will release its quarterly earnings.
