ASX finishes higher; Qantas jumps, Harvey Norman slides

Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day.

The numbers

The ASX closed higher on Friday, boosted by strong energy and industrial sectors.

The S&P/ASX 200 gained 46.8 points, or 0.58 per cent, to 8091.9 at the close, its highest finish since its all-time closing high set on August 1. It was the third straight week of gains, with an 0.85 per cent rise for the week, following a sharp 2.1 per cent decline for the week ending August 9. Eight of the 11 sectors finished in the green.

Wall Street ended mixed after a late slide by tech stocks. Credit: AP

The lifters

Energy stocks were the best performers on Friday as Brent crude prices ticked up 1.4 per cent to $US79.78 a barrel.

The big four banks lifted slightly as the heads of NAB (up 0.6 per cent) and ANZ (up 1.2 per cent) faced questions from the House of Representatives economics committee inquiry, following CBA (up 0.5 per cent) and Westpac (up 0.5 per cent) on Thursday.

Qantas boosted the industrial sector, with the airline’s stocks jumping 5.3 per cent after posting a $1.25 billion full-year profit on Thursday – a 28 per cent decline on the previous year. The airline missed most of its financial targets in the 2024 financial year, but announced a $400 million on-market share buyback and signalled it would probably return to fully franked dividends in the second half of this financial year.

Mining also closed in the green, led by sector heavyweights Rio Tinto (up 1.4 per cent) and BHP (up 0.6 per cent) as iron ore rose 1 per cent to $US101.90 a tonne. Fortescue was down 1.6 per cent.

Vodafone operator TPG Telecom was the biggest large-cap gainer, soaring 8.3 per cent after saying it would cut 120 jobs to save $20 million following a 40 per cent drop in net profit, and miner Newmont Corporation (up 2.5 per cent) rounded out the largest winners.

The laggards

The Star Entertainment Group entered a trading halt after the NSW casino regulator said it needed more time to decide what to do about the struggling gaming giant after receiving the findings of a damning report into its culture. The company was due to report its results on Friday, but that announcement was delayed.

Consumer discretionary and healthcare stocks closed lower, dragged down by results on what was the final day of earnings season.

Harvey Norman’s shares fell 6.3 per cent after announcing a 30.2 per cent slump in profits as its executive chairman, Gerry Harvey, warned that the white goods retailer may eventually have to delist from the ASX due to costly compliance obligations.

Executive chairman Gerry Harvey has taken a shot at the ASX compliance obligations. Credit: Louise Kennerley AFR

Ramsay Health Care shares plummeted 6.8 per cent after signalled patient growth was expected to slow in the coming year.

Telecommunications provider Spark New Zealand closed out the large-cap losers, dipping 2.6 per cent.

The lowdown

Michael McCarthy, chief commercial officer at Moomoo, said the sharemarket had a strong finish to the week after a slow early session on Friday.

“It’s a U-turn during the course of the trading day; we started fairly weakly, but we’ve seen the market pick up and finish quite firmly in the green again, and we’re now within 1 per cent of the all-time high for the market. So there’s a lot of anticipation and a lot of bullish sentiment,” he said.

“We saw that reflected across the market today; good support for metals and mining stocks, we saw good support for biotechnology stocks which have languished lately, even some of the major oil and gas miners found some love from investors today.”

He said there were a few notable weak finishes, including Ramsay Health Care, which hit 10-year lows before rebounding slightly by the session’s end.

“This stock has been a market darling for a long time and the pressure leading into the result, and then the poor response to the result from investors, is very worrying for shareholders,” McCarthy said.

Monthly retail data published on Friday morning showed sales remained steady despite an expected rise of 0.3 per cent following tax cuts that put more money in consumers’ pockets as of July 1.

The Australian dollar has jumped 3.9 per cent this month and elsewhere in commodities, spot gold lifted 0.8 per cent to $US2524.06 an ounce.

On Wall Street overnight, a late-afternoon slide by some big tech companies cut into gains, leading to a mixed finish for US stock indexes.

The S&P 500 ended flat after giving up an earlier gain of nearly 1 per cent. The benchmark index is about 1.3 per cent away from its record set in July.

The Dow Jones gained 0.6 per cent, enough for its third all-time high since Monday. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, slipped 0.2 per cent. It had been up 1.3 per cent in early trading.

Nvidia, which has ridden the frenzy over artificial intelligence to become one of the S&P 500’s most influential companies, was the biggest weight on the market. Its shares fell 6.4 per cent despite stellar results for the second quarter. The stock, with a total market value topping $US3 trillion ($4.4 trillion), is still up 138 per cent in 2024.

Tweet of the day

Quote of the day

“Notwithstanding that improvements have been made, and are in the process of being made, it cannot be ignored that the board of Star Entertainment has, in some important respects, failed to provide the necessary leadership and oversight,” Adam Bell, SC, said after being commissioned by the NSW casino regulator to conduct a second probe into The Star.

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With AP, Bloomberg

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