Hello and good afternoon. I’m Holly reporting live from Kalkine Studio, and you’re watching ‘The Mid-Market Pulse’.
Australian shares were swinging between gains and losses by mid-session today with traders
making cautious moves, looking for direction. Tech and health care stocks dragged the market
lower, including Zip Co, Afterpay, Nearmap, CSL, and Sigma Healthcare.
However, strong buying in gold stocks like Silver Lake Resources, Regis, Gold Road Resources
as well as grocery wholesaler Metcash limited market losses. The looming fear about the
long-term impact of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on the global economic growth also weighed
on the market. As of now, ten newcase of the Omicron coronavirus has been detected in the
New South Wales, which raised fears of reimposition of restrictions and delay in economic
recovery. Overall, the state has reported 25 cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant,
of which 14 locally acquired and 11 from overseas. By the afternoon trade, the ASX 200 index was down
by 12.20 points or 0.17%. The benchmark index witnessed a seesawed opening today,
following weak cues from Wall Street.
Back home, on the sectoral front, six of 11 sectors were trading in green, led by the
consumer staples index, which rose 1.9%, followed by utilities - up 1.6%. Among others, energy,
industrial, A-REIT, and consumer discretionary sectors also traded higher with marginal gains.
Meanwhile, tech sector was the worst performer with a 2.5% loss, followed weak
cues from the US counterpart, NASADAQ Composite. Some of the other sectors that witnessed selling
pressure includes health care, materials, financial and telecom.
The top loser on the ASX pack was BNPL business Zip, which traded 8.9% lower. Some of the other
notable laggards were software business Nearmap, global online retailer Redbubble, auto parts
retailer Bapcor, and e-commerce firm Kogan.com. On the gaining side, groceries wholesaler
Metcash topped the chart by rising 5.4%. The other top performers were gold miners Silver
Lake Resources and Regis Resources, natural gas and energy business APA Group, and coal
miner Whitehaven Coal.
And now, before we move to the newsmakers, lets take a small break
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Welcome back. Holly this side, let’s move on
to stocks that created a buzz on the ASX today.
Shares of Boral rose over 2% after the concrete and asphalt company signed deal to sell its
North American Fly Ash business. The company has entered into an agreement with Eco Material
Technologies Inc to sell its North American Fly Ash business for around AU$1 billion.
The deal will complete Boral’s portfolio realignment and strategic refocus back on
its construction materials business in Australia. Boral chief executive Zlatko Todorcevski said
the sale of the fly ash operations meant the company was now fully focused on reinvigorating
its Australian operations. Boral, which is 70 per cent-owned by billionaire Kerry Stokes
through the Seven Group Holdings vehicle, had been operating fly ash operations for
about 40 years in the US.
Shares of Bapcor tumbled over 8% after auto part retailer announced sudden exit of its
CEO. The chief executive Officer and Managing Director, Darryl Abotomey who was scheduled
to retire by the end of February 2022, has exited the company with immediate effect.
The company’s Board has appointed Noel Meehan, Bapcor’s CFO as Acting CEO, effective immediately.
Bapcor Chair Margie Haseltine will step into the role of Executive Chair. The car parts
retailer said the global search process for a permanent CEO has been underway for some
time and is well-progressed. The leadership transition presents an opportunity for Bapcor
to install a more contemporary leadership and management approach to drive the Company’s
growth while also ensuring consistent with changing stakeholders’ expectations.
Shares of biotech firm CSL fell nearly 3% after it lost a court challenge to the US
plasma supply. The company had challenged the US Customs and Border Protection agency’s
decision to ban Mexican citizens from crossing into the US to donate blood plasma. The processing
of blood plasma accounts for 85 per cent of CSL’s earnings, while remaining comes from
vaccines and antivenom. The US-Mexico stand-off has affected 13 of CSL’s centres. Chief
executive Paul Perreault has vowed to fight for patients who are waiting for blood plasma,
which is used to create life-saving therapies.
Shares of Sigma Healthcare dipped nearly 4% after the pharma distributer lowered profit
guidance for the current financial year. For the financial year ending January 2022, the
underlying EBITDA is expected to be down around 10% as compared to the previous year. The
earnings downgrade reflects a challenging second half of the financial year, which has
been impacted by shorter-term operational issues resulting from the roll-out of its
Enterprise Resource Planning, with Sigma switching to the live SAP environment on 29 August 2021.
These issues were compounded further by the protracted COVID-19 impacts.
Shares of Metcash gained 5.5% after it released half yearly earnings report for 2022 financial
year. The supermarket groceries operator reported 3 per cent growth in statutory profit during
the first half of the current fiscal, while underlying profit increased 13.1 per cent.
Revenue rose 1.3 per cent, while underlying EBIT climbed 13.9 per cent. The company has
also raised its interim dividend 31 per cent after a strong first half with strong sales
and earnings across all its pillars.
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 Holly signing off!