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Australian stocks lifted from the depths of the global slump.
Today’s scoreboard:
- ASX200: 5,876.80 +43.50 +0.75%
- All Ordinaries: 5,981.50 +51.30 +0.87%
- AUD/USD: 0.7880 -0.0025 -0.32%
The local market recovered some of the ground lost to the global wave of selling but the ASX200 is still well below the key 6000 support level where it was before the slump.
Today the big miners were the backbone of the rally, following Wall Street where the S&P 500 closed 0.9% higher and the Dow Jones was up 1.4%.
BHP was up 2.1% to $29.95, Woodside Petroleum 2.1% to $32.72 and Rio Tinto 4.2% to $78.60.
Macquarie Group regained the $100 mark, rising 4% to $101.79.
The other banks didn’t fare as well. Westpac was slipped 0.1% to $30.30 and the Commonwealth was down 0.79% to $76.79.
Carsales.com was down 1.7% to $14.12 despite reporting an 11% rise in half year profit to $60.9 million.
Mortgage insurance company Genworth shed 2.1% to $2.74 after reporting a 26.5% fall in reported half year profit to 149.2 million.
Construction group CIMIC was 3.4% higher at $46.46 after posting a 21% jump in profit to $702 million for the 12 months to December.
Top stories:
1. Home loan applicants are either very wealthy or stretching the truth. The latest research from UBS analysts Jon Mott and Rachel Bentvelzen.
2. The cost of bank scandals. The Commonwealth, Australia’s biggest bank, has estimated the dollar cost of major bank inquiries and the money laundering scandal at more than half a billion dollars. Also read: CBA’s half year profit falls.
3. Sydney biotech Elastagen bought for $120 million by the maker of Botox. The University of Sydney spin-off, which has a product to fix stretch marks and acne scars, has been bought by biopharmaceutical Allergan.
4. Furniture retailer Nick Scali defies the retail crunch. A 15% lift in profit to $23.5 million over the first half of 2018, driven by improved sales from an expanding network of furniture stores. Nick Scali shares were down 1.1% to $6.90.
5. Solomon Lew is preparing for another attack on the board of Myer. Premier Investments has asked for Myer’s shareholder register as it prepares another campaign to topple the board of directors of at the department store chain.
6. Allegations of millions of dollars in false FX trades at Deutsche Bank. Andrew Donaldson has been charged with recording millions of dollars to offset losses when he was a FX options and futures trader in Sydney.
7. Trust. Australians now have given up on the government, business and the media, and now look to CEOs to take leadership.
8. Management meetings. Here’s why you should never them in the afternoon.
