Hello, I'm Holly and
thanks for joining me on Kalkine TV for ASX Buzzing Stocks for the Day.
Australian shares have risen to their highest level in five months, led by sharp gains across
mining and energy stocks, as investors shrugged off China's renewed COVID-19 lockdowns.
The ASX 200 index had gained 0.8 per cent to 7,230 points, by 10:35am AEDT on Wednesday.
Shares of Qantas jumped 5.1 per cent to $6.17, making it one of today's best performing stocks.
This was after the airline announced its second profit upgrade in six weeks, thanks to strong
demand for domestic flights.
Looking at the latest announcements now.
Continued strength in travel demand has resulted in the Qantas (ASX: QAN) upgrading its profit
expectations for the first half of FY23.
The group now expects an underlying profit before tax of between $1.35 billion and $1.45
billion.
This represents a $150 million increase to the profit range given in early October 2022.
Qantas said, consumers continue to put a high priority on travel ahead of other spending
categories and there are signs that limits on international capacity are driving more
domestic leisure demand, benefiting Australian tourism.
Fuel costs remain significantly elevated compared with FY19 and are expected to reach approximately
$5 billion1 for FY23, which would be a record high for Qantas despite international capacity
at around 30 per cent below pre-COVID levels.
Moreover, Qantas informed the market that of the $400 million share buyback announced
in August 2022, 76 per cent is now complete at an average price of $5.66.
Low levels of net debt put the board in a position to consider future shareholder returns
in February 2023 consistent with Qantas’ financial framework and phasing of capital
expenditure for fleet renewal.
Mesoblast (ASX: MSB) today reported operational highlights and financial results for the period
ended September 30, 2022 and provided an update on upcoming milestones.
Mesoblast announced top-line long-term survival results for remestemcel-L from its pivotal
Phase 3 trial in children with steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease.
The results showed durable survival through 4 years of follow-up and many lives that could
potentially be saved by making this therapy available as soon as possible to children
with the most common lifethreatening complication after bone marrow transplantation.
PolyNovo (ASX:PNV) advises that it has received firm commitments to subscribe for new fully
paid ordinary shares in the company pursuant to a A$30 million institutional placement.
New Shares will be issued in accordance with the company’s placement capacity under ASX
Listing Rule 7.1.
The Institutional Placement is scheduled to settle on Monday, 28 November 2022.
PolyNovo’s CEO, Swami Raote, said the company has received such strong demand from a number
of its existing institutional shareholders who continue to support PolyNovo, and it welcome
a number of new institutional investors as the company continue on its journey to improve
patient outcomes.
Proceeds from the equity raising will allow PolyNovo to continue to capitalise on the
significant opportunities available including geographic sales team and indication expansion,
investment in R&D and the development of a new facility to satisfy the growing demand
for NovoSorb.
ALRIGHT, that's all for this edition of ASX Buzzing Stocks for the Day; another episode
is coming your way.
Until then, make sure to keep watching Kalkine TV for the latest market insights and business
news.
I'm Holly, signing off for now.