Australian sharemarket barely changed, AMP shares up despite court action over charging dead customers

The ASX closed barely changed, with bad news not stopping some stocks rising including travel firms as Victoria enters another lockdown.

The Australian sharemarket was flat on Thursday, with AMP gaining ground despite court action relating to its charging dead customers scandal, while labour shortages hit a major fruit and vegetable grower hard.

The S&P/ASX200 closed just 2.4 points higher at 7094.9 while the All Ordinaries Index lifted 12.4 points to 7344.

CommSec analyst Steve Daghlian said the local bourse had only fallen twice over the past fortnight and could be on track for its eighth-straight month of gains depending on how trading goes on Friday and Monday. The last time that happened was 14 years ago.

Miners were positive contributors, coming off the back of declines earlier this week when iron ore prices took a hit.

Rio Tinto gained 0.95 per cent to $119.87, BHP appreciated 0.97 per cent to $46.80 and Fortescue jumped 4.95 per cent to $22.27.

Lithium producer Pilbara Minerals was a standout performer, surging 6.17 per cent to $1.20.

Embattled financial services giant AMP leapt 8.45 per cent to $1.15 despite the Australian Securities and Investments Commission taking it to court for allegedly charging more than 2000 dead customers life insurance premiums and advice service fees.

The action comes years after the scandal was aired at the banking royal commission. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Steven Saphore

ASIC says that happened despite AMP being advised of the deaths.

“AMP has taken this matter very seriously and we will now carefully consider the allegations raised by ASIC,” group general counsel David Cullen said.

Whitehaven Coal had a win in court, with the dismissal of proceedings seeking to prevent the federal environment minister granting approval for the miner’s Vickery Extension Project in NSW.

Shares in the company added 2.33 per cent to $1.53.

Another coal miner, New Hope Corporation, advanced 4.89 per cent to $1.39 after several broker upgrades in recent days, with Citi noting the company’s shares had eased in the past six months but thermal coal prices had risen substantially.

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare posted a record full-year result, with net profit up 82 per cent, but its shares fell 5.99 per cent to $27.94.

“The unprecedented result was driven by our hospital product group, which includes Optiflow and Airvo systems used to deliver nasal high flow therapy,” chief executive Lewis Gradon said.

“Sales of our hospital hardware and consumables have continued to track COVID-19 hospitalisation surges in countries around the world.”

Costa Group, which is Australia’s biggest fresh fruit and vegetable supplier to the major food retailers, told its annual general meeting that coronavirus restrictions and labour shortages had challenged the business, and called on the government to do more to enable greater access to seasonal workers.

Blueberries are a big business for Costa Group.

“Without action on this, the industry will continue to face labour capacity challenges both for the remainder of CY21 and into CY22,” chief executive Sean Hallahan said.

Costa shares nosedived 24.1 per cent to $3.37.

After Victoria was plunged into another lockdown as the number of local Covid cases doubled in one day, travel stocks held up surprisingly well.

Flight Centre rose 2.82 per cent to $15.31, Webjet gained 1.4 per cent to $5.07, Qantas firmed 0.43 per cent to $4.69 and Corporate Travel Management lifted 0.69 per cent to $20.50.

“Big picture … they’ve mostly been lower over the course of the month,” Mr Daghlian said.

“In fact most of the big travel stocks have been down between 5 and 10 per cent in May alone.”

Domino’s Pizza slid 4.9 per cent to $106.36.

“Again, they’ve done quite well in the early part of the week … after receiving a broker upgrade,” Mr Daghlian said.

Commonwealth Bank again pierced the psychologically significant $100 point mark after doing so for the first time on Wednesday, climbing to $100.08 in intraday trade before closing 0.6 per cent lower at $98.97.

ANZ inched 0.14 per cent higher to $28.54, National Australia Bank gave up 0.4 per cent to $26.71 and Westpac shed 0.69 per cent to $26.09.

The Aussie dollar was fetching 77.47 US cents, 54.89 British pence and 63.51 Euro cents in afternoon trade.

Originally published as Australian sharemarket barely changed, AMP shares up despite court action over charging dead customers