Australian sharemarket lunges higher on busiest reporting season day so far

The ASX surged on a chockablock corporate news day, with BHP delivering a bumper dividend and more woe for Crown.

The ASX surged on a chockablock corporate news day. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

The Australian sharemarket lunged higher again on Tuesday, with impressive earnings results driving gains.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index added 0.7 per cent to 6917.3 while the All Ordinaries Index lifted 0.55 per cent to 7189.3.

CommSec analyst Tom Piotrowski said it was a bumpy ride on a chockablock earnings reporting season day, helped by gains on northern hemisphere markets overnight, while US markets were closed for the President’s Day holiday.

“It’s not a bad outcome. Obviously we saw some losses towards the end of last week, a solid recovery yesterday. To be able to add to those improvements today indicates a pretty constructive tone,” Mr Piotrowski said.

BHP declared the biggest dividend in its history after booking a 16 per cent surge in half-year underlying profit to $US6.03bn ($7.73bn), as record shipments from its flagship iron ore mines in Western Australia coincide with high prices for the steelmaking commodity.

All aboard the dividend train: BHP shareholders have been rewarded with a record return. Picture: Ian Waldie/Bloomberg News

OpenMarkets Group chief executive Ivan Tchourilov said BHP didn’t disappoint, delivering shareholders a dividend well above market expectations.

“BHP, in recent years, has distributed far greater dividends to its shareholders than any of the big four banks,” Mr Tchourilov said.

“It’s always been a growth play but is now also an attractive yield play, especially after today’s result.”

Shares in the mining giant rose 2.73 per cent to $47 while Rio Tinto appreciated 2.97 per cent to $123.05.

Fortescue slumped 2.99 per cent to $23.70 after the iron ore producer announced three executives had resigned including chief operating officer Greg Lilleyman.

Chief executive Elizabeth Gaines blamed the exits on the company’s Iron Bridge magnetite project in WA, which has blown out in cost, saying “we have lost sight of that critical focus” on values and culture.

“As CEO I must also take accountability and learn from this,” she said ahead of an update on the project along with Fortescue’s half year financial results on February 18.

Greg Lilleyman has quit Fortescue Metals Group after joining the miner in 2017.

Greenland Minerals soared 15.63 per cent to 18.5 cents after providing an update on the public consultation process for its flagship Kvanefjeld rare earth project in Greenland, saying “no issues were raised that have not been thoroughly addressed in the impact assessments”.

Seven West Media leapt 16 per cent to 58 cents in the wake of its “groundbreaking” agreement with Google to provide news content on its new Google Showcase platform, announced on Monday.

Crown Resorts dropped 2.11 per cent to $9.76 after official confirmation it had been deemed unsuitable to keep the gaming licence for its new casino at Barangaroo in Sydney following damning findings from an inquiry into money laundering at its Melbourne and Perth venues.

When asked if the Perth casino licence could be put out to tender, WA Premier Mark McGowan, who is campaigning for the state election, told reporters “all those things could be out there. Obviously there are propriety issues”.

Breville added 2.75 per cent to $31.35 after reporting a near 30 per cent jump on half year net profit, with revenue growth in all regions and categories, supported by the pandemic-induced working from home and “premiumisation” trends, as well as the decision to invest in inventory in May.

Appliance maker Breville has benefited from the pandemic-induced work from home trend, with air treatment products in high demand.

The appliance maker said it had enjoyed double-digit sales growth in its range of air treatment products, and single-digit growth in Kambrook and Nespresso products.

National Australia Bank inched 1.07 per cent higher to $25.56 after providing a first quarter trading update showing cash earnings rose 47 per cent, primarily driven by low credit impairment charges.

ANZ put on 0.99 per cent to $25.47, Commonwealth Bank gave up 0.46 per cent to $85.91 and Westpac rose 0.49 per cent to $22.51.

Buy-now-pay-later provider Zip Co again hit a new all-time high of $14.53 in intraday trade before closing almost 10 per cent higher at $13.92.

“The stock has put on over 70 per cent over the past three weeks so there’s clearly a lot of investor interest,” Mr Tchourilov said.

The Aussie dollar was fetching 77.78 US cents, 55.83 British pence and 64.09 Euro cents in afternoon trade.