Hello everyone! Good morning. This is James live from Kalkine Studio in Sydney.
And you’re watching the Early Trades. Let’s, get started with our market open
report.
Australian shares have opened lower on Friday as technology, fintech, buy now pay later
and software stocks sink. The S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 0.6 per cent in early trading.
BHP is down 0.6 per cent and Rio Tinto 1.6 per cent. The banks are flat to higher with
Commonwealth Bank up 0.3 per cent at the open. City Chic shares fell 3.8 per cent on the
retailer's trading update and disclosure of targeted higher inventory levels. Afterpay
fell 7.2 per cent. Afterpay is a proxy for parent Block, whose shares fell 5.9 per cent
in New York overnight as Wall Street's tech stocks crumbled in the face of rising interest
rates. Michael Hill International is close to flat, up 0.4 per cent after confirming
an earlier profit upgrade issued in the final days of December.
And now, let us move on to look at big news coming in from ASX listed companies.
The City Chic Collective share price is under pressure on Friday. The plus-sized fashion
retailer’s shares were down in the morning. Investors have been selling down the City
Chic share price on Friday following the release of a trading update. According to the release,
during the first half of financial year 2022, City Chic delivered unaudited sales revenue
growth of 49.8%. This represents 44% growth on a comparable store basis. City Chic’s
sales growth was underpinned by positive performances across all markets. The company’s online
business played a key role in this positive form. Website traffic increased 22% visits
during the half.
BPH Energy has requested an extension to suspend trading to Friday January 21 as the company
is still waiting for the release of an announcement relating to the participation of its investee
Advent Energy in a “farm out agreement”. The initial suspension started on December
9 and is expiring today.
Michael Hill has delivered record Christmas results despite the company grappling with
store closures due to the spread of COVID-19. The jewellery retailer reported that group
all stores sales were up 9.8 per cent in the second quarter of the 2022 financial year
despite 2381 lost store trading days. Same store sales were up 9.6 per cent on the prior
year. In Australia, same stores sales were up 5.2 per cent and all stores sales were
up 2.2 per cent, even with 38 NSW, 29 Victorian and four ACT stores temporarily closed for
between two and five weeks.
The Star
Entertainment Group said Austrac has expanded the scope of investigation to other entities
within the company. Austrac, which notified in June that Star was being investigated,
has not yet decided about taking any enforcement action. The Star said it is taking anti-money
laundering obligations very seriously and will fully co-operate with Austrac.
The Qantas Airways share price is on watch today after it released an update after
the market close on Thursday. According to the release, the airline operator is cutting
its capacity during the third quarter in response to rising Omicron cases. Qantas will slash
its domestic capacity to 70% of pre-COVID levels and international capacity to 20% of
pre-COVID levels.
Energy producers including Santos and Woodside Petroleum opened in red on the last day of
the week after oil prices dropped. The WTI crude oil price is down 0.5% and the Brent
crude oil price is down 0.3%. A mixed demand outlook weighed on prices.
The Australian tech sector is under pressure, which is the bad news for shares such as Afterpay and Appen.
This follows a poor night of trade on Wall Street, which saw the tech rebound run out
of steam and the Nasdaq index fall 1.6%. The Block share price was down almost 5% in late
trade.
Gold miners Newcrest Mining and St Barbara both are trading low after the gold price dropped.
The spot gold price is down 0.4%. The gold price fell after yields edged higher
and traders started to price in a US Fed rate hike in the near future.
Well, that’s all for now on the early trades! 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 James signing off!