Hello and good afternoon. I’m Rachael reporting live from Kalkine Studio. It’s lunchtime here
in Sydney, and time for ‘The Mid-Market Pulse’. Australian
shares slipped into negative terrain by mid-session, with majority of sectors
in the red. The equity market witnessed choppy trade as gains in property, mining and financial
stocks were offset by losses in consumer staples, energy and telecom companies. By afternoon trade,
the benchmark index, the ASX 200, was down by just 2.30 points. The index did open higher today,
tracking firm cues from Wall Street, but soon pared gains to slip into negative terrain. On
Wall Street, all three benchmarks closed higher in overnight trade on Wednesday, as investors
cheered strong quarterly earnings. The market seemed to have set aside inflation and supply
concerns as quarterly results lifted investors’ risk appetite. The S&P 500 gained 0.3%, while the
Dow Jones rose 0.4%. The NASDAQ Composite closed relatively flat. Back home, on the sectoral front,
eight the 11 sectoral indices were trading lower, while consumer staples, energy and telecom were
worst performers. The consumer staples sector was the biggest loser by falling 0.8%. It was followed
by energy sector, which fell 0.65%. Among others, telecom, consumer discretionary, tech, and
industrial also traded lower. Bucking the trend, A-REIT was the top performing sector with a 0.9%
gain, followed by materials and health care, which traded marginally higher. let’s look at the top
gainers and losers by mid-session trade. Shares in travel business Flight Centre Travel Group,
dropped 8.1% by lunchtime. Some of other top laggards were retailer Super Retail Group,
digital travel business Webjet, coal miner Whitehaven Coal, and online retailer Redbubble.
On the gaining side, health care firm Healius was the best performer with a 7.2% gain. Some of
other notable gainers were fund manager Perpetual, gambling machine manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure,
engineering services firm CIMIC Group, and software business Appen.And now, its time for
a short break but stay tuned on kalkine tv as I’l be back with more trending market updates.
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Hello and welcome back. Rachael here live from Sydney,
you are watching to the mid-market commentary.
Lets move on to some more stocks that created a buzz on ASX today. Shares of supermarket giant
Woolworths were down nearly 1% after it mandated COVID-19 vaccine for all its staff. The mandate
will apply all of its 170,000 employees working in its 1,200 retail stores. The deadline for the full
vaccination requirement in New South Wales, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory,
Northern Territory and Western Australia is January 31. For Queensland, South Australia and
Tasmania will have a deadline of March 31, 2022. Shares of AMP jumped nearly 5% following business
update for September quarter. The financial services company reported Australian wealth
management assets under management at AU$131.2 billion during the third quarter ended September
30, 2021. Meanwhile, AMP Bank’s total loan book increased to AU$21.3 billion, while AMP Capital’s
AUM fell by 4%. Shares of oil and gas major Woodside Petroleum traded marginally lower
after it released third quarter business report. The energy company’s sales revenue rose by 19%,
compared to previous quarter. For the quarter ended September 30, 2021, the
company delivered oil production of 22.2 million barrels of oil equivalent,
down 2% from the second quarter of 2021. During the quarter under review, the company also entered
into a merger commitment deed with BHP Group to merge its oil and gas portfolio with Woodside.
Shares of health care firm Healius rose nearly 7% after it released details of Annual General
Meeting’s for the 2021 financial year. The company informed its shareholders that it reported
44% growth in its revenue in the September quarter of 2022, on the back of COVID-19 testing
and a stronger performance by all business segments. The company said that the pathology
revenues rose as it conducted more than 40,000 COVID-19 tests per working day.
Australian energy major Santos saw its shares trading 0.4% lower by lunchtime despite reporting
robust earnings in September quarter. It reported quarterly sales up 6% compared to the same
period last year. The third quarter production dropped by 3%, compared to the previous quarter.
Shares of fund manager Perpetual rose over 4% after its reported robust earnings in
September quarter. The assets under management grew by 2.7% in the third quarter. Assets in
the company’s international fund management unit grew 2.6%, while the local business grew assets
3%. Australian gambling machine manufacturer, Aristocrat Leisure rose more than 5% and
headed toward a new closing high. The company has received investor support for its
AU$3.9 billion takeover for UK-listed gambling software group Playtech on Monday. The company
said prior to markets opening that it had secured the capital required to back the Playtech deal,
which will be funded by a mix of equity, debt, and cash on hand.
Well, that’s a wrap in the show. Keep watching kalkine tv for more trending market updates
from Australia and around the world.