Hello and good afternoon. I’m Sage reporting live from Kalkine Studio. It’s lunchtime here in Sydney, and time for ‘The Mid-Market
Pulse’. In today’s show, we’ll take a look at the overall Australian share market performance by the
mid-session trade. We will also explore the biggest winners and losers of the day such as South32,
Oil Search, Lynas Rare Earths, GUD Holdings, Chalice Mining, Pro Medicus, and others. Lastly,
we’ll discuss stocks such as API, Woolworths, Wesfarmers, Macquarie Group, Afterpay, and
many more that have grabbed headlines today. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
Australian shares continued to trade lower by afternoon trade on Thursday, albeit paring
some of early losses, amid persistent concerns about the long-term impact of the Omicron
variant, a new COVID-19 strain. As of now, sixth case of the Omicron coronavirus has
been detected in the country, which stoked fears of reimposition of curbs and delay in economic
recovery. By the afternoon trade, the ASX 200 index was down by 36.10 points or 0.50%. Following weak
closing at Wall Street, the benchmark index opened lower for the second straight session
and declined as much as 0.9% during the session so far. On the sectoral front, eight of 11
sectors were trading in red, led by tech index. The information technology sector was the
worst performer with a 2.9% loss, led by fintech stocks such as Afterpay, Xero, Netwealth and
Zip. The falls in growth-driven tech stocks was seen as investors rushed back to software
and e-commerce shares as worries about the omicron strain clouded the global recovery.
Meanwhile, utilities was the best performer with a 0.4% gain, followed by industrials
and financial, which traded marginally higher.
In our next segment, let’s focus on the top gainers and losers by mid-session trade.
The top loser on the ASX pack was minerals exploration company Orocobre, which traded
7.1% lower. Some of the other notable losers were diversified financial group Netwealth,
fintech major Afterpay, health care business Pro Medicus, and asset management business
Pendal Group. On the gaining side, energy major Worley topped the chart by rising 3.1%
by mid-session. Some of the other top performers were automobile component manufacturer GUD,
gold producer Chalice Mining, transportation business Transurban Group, and Fletcher Building.
And now, before we move to the newsmakers, lets take a small break
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Welcome back. Sage this side, let’s move on to stocks that created a buzz on the ASX
today.
Shares of Australian Pharmaceutical Industries, a health and beauty company, rallied nearly
17% after it received a takeover offer from Woolworths Group. However, WOW share price
dropped marginally following the announcement. Woolworths, one of Australia’s leading retailers,
has proposed to acquire 100% of the shares in API for AU$1.75 per API share, outbidding
rival Wesfarmers. The deal values API’s equity at AU$872 million, 12.9% more than
the offer proposed by Wesfarmers last month. Meanwhile, the Board of API has determined
that the Woolworths Group proposal is reasonably likely to be a Superior Proposal. Woolworths
Group will engage constructively with API to quickly finalise its due diligence enquiries.
API is one of Australia’s leading health and beauty retailers and pharmaceutical distributors
and is listed on the ASX. API is the parent company of the Priceline Pharmacy, Soul Pattinson
Chemist, and Pharmacist Advice brands, and provides a range of retail services to its
community pharmacy partners and company-owned Priceline retail stores.
Macquarie Group shares were up 0.3% by mid-session after it appointed former Reserve Bank of
Australia governor Glenn Stevens as the new chairman. The country’s biggest asset manager
said Stevens would replace Peter Warne, who will retire by the 2022 Annual General Meeting.
Warne has been Chair of the of Macquarie Group and Macquarie Bank boards since April 2016
and a director of both entities since 2007. Stevens’ appointment and Warne’s retirement
as a Voting Director on both boards will be effective in early May 2022, following the
2022 full-year results announcement.
Shares of Afterpay dropped 5% after the buy now, pay later major delayed a shareholder
vote on its acquisition by Square. The fintech company informed its shareholders this morning
that it has decided to defer a shareholder meeting to vote on its acquisition by Square
Inc, following a delay in approval from the Bank of Spain. The meeting, which was scheduled
on 6 December 2021, will be delayed until the new year. Afterpay and Square are confident
that the Bank of Spain condition will ultimately be satisfied. Whilst the statutory deadline
for Square’s application for Bank of Spain approval is currently 21 February 2022, at
present Square expects that the Bank of Spain condition will be satisfied in mid-January
2022.
Shares of Crown Resorts, Australia's largest gaming and entertainment group, traded marginally
higher after it again rejected a takeover bid from US private equity firm Blackstone.
The casino operators’ board believes that the AU$8.5 billion takeover bid of AU$12.5
a share was not high enough and was not "compelling value" for investors. The company, however,
has opened its books to Blackstone to undertake due diligence so it could raise its takeover
bid.
Well, that’s all for now on the mid-market pulse! Stay tuned to Kalkine TV as we
have many more shows lined up for you for sharing live updates across the economy,
markets, and sectors. This is Sage signing off!