ASX 200 ends down 0.3pc; Qantas, Wesfarmers profits meet estimates; South32's big buyback, Cettire profit slumps; MinRes cans final dividend; Nvidia falls

WATCH LIVE: Westpac CEO Peter King speaking during parliamentary Q&A. CBA boss vows to continue lending to gas projects. Ellison's fortunes hit in MinRes dive. Qantas, South32 flag buybacks as profits fall. Cettire down on profit slump.

Qantas results and commentary in focus among earnings reports from other major corporates. Picture: William West/AFP

Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Thursday, August 29. The ASX 200 index fell 0.3 per cent to close at 8,045.1 points with falls across seven of the 11 sectors, led by energy and consumer-exposed stocks.  Financial was the best performing sector, followed by technology and health care.

The Aussie dollar is trading near US67.93c after Wednesday's July CPI boost.

Updates

4:31 pm August 29, 2024

ASX 200 ends down 0.3pc but well supported

David Rogers

Australia's stock market fell slightly but remained well supported on dips Thursday as US index futures mostly recovered from a sharp fall as Nvidia dived.

The S&P/ASX 200 closed down 0.3 per cent at 8045.1 after dipping to 8017.7.

All sectors except financials, industrials and tech fell, with energy, discretionary, staples, utilities and materials underperforming.

Woodside fell 1.7 per cent and Santos lost 2.7 per cent as crude oil prices sagged.

Wesfarmers dived 4.1 per cent as a disappointing start to FY25 trading for Bunnings and Kmart was enough to knock is shares after they hit a record high.

MinRes dived 8 per cent as the market digested higher-than-expectedcapex and weaker lithium metrics. Wooworths fell 2.4 per cent as Barrejoey downgraded.

Red5 plunged 12 per cent after reporting and Webjet dripped 5.6 per cent.

BHP fell 0.6 per cent but bounced strongly intraday with iron ore prices up.

Financials let support with major banks up 0.2-0.8 per cent.

3:20 pm August 29, 2024

Aussies vulnerable to investment scams: Westpac CEO

Glenda Korporaal

Declining numbers of financial advisers have left ordinary Australians more vulnerable to investment scams, Westpac chief executive Peter King warns.

Appearing before the House of Representatives Economics Committee on Thursday, Mr King said the bank was concerned at the amount of investment scams on social media platforms such as Facebook.

He said the big fall in financial advisers, which have come down from around 28,000 in 2018 to only around 15,000 today had been a factor in ordinary people becoming more vulnerable to investment scams.

Mr King said investment scams were “way too common” these days, with many people turning to social media to get advice on their financial planning and for possible investments ahead of their retirement.

He said Westpac was taking action to help customers who had been taken in by investment scams on social media platforms.

He said Westpac had recently helped a customer who was about to invest some $350,000 in an investment scam, investing in what he thought was a Commonwealth Bank bond offering a nine per cent interest rate.

“One of the benefits of financial planning organisations is that they have an approved product list,” he said.

“They do due diligence on what to invest in and what they allow financial planners to invest in.”

“We have to find a way to get financial planning at scale (to ordinary Australians),” he said.

3:18 pm August 29, 2024

Perpetual’s new boss faces ‘serious challenges’

Tansy Harcourt

In a few days, the once-great Perpetual will have a new boss at the helm.

Bernard Reilly’s task will be exponential.

“Good luck to him – I would not want to be doing that job,” says one of Australia’s most closely watched fund managers, who did not want to be named for this article. “The business has serious challenges turning around its outflows and holding onto its key staff.”

Indeed, Mr Reilly faces a mammoth task.

Perpetual is known for nurturing many of the nation’s very best fund managers over its 138-year gloried history. But then four years ago, when facing the existential threat born by all active investors losing funds to cheaper exchange-traded competitors, it went on a board-endorsed takeover frenzy that ratcheted up its borrowings and failed to stop its outflows of funds.

2:44 pm August 29, 2024

Bank digital payments surcharge necessary: Westpac CEO

Glenda Korporaal

Westpac chief executive Peter King has rejected suggestions that banks should not charge a surcharge for digital payments.

He said payments were necessary to encourage banks to invest in a digital payment system.

“I would be really cautious about saying you want to have free payments,” he told the House of Representatives Economics Committee in Canberra on Thursday.

“It will mean there is no price signal to invest.”

2:27 pm August 29, 2024

WA offset requirements ‘beyond reasonable’: South32

Cameron England

South32 boss Graham Kerr has questioned the rationale for Western Australia’s environmental regulator to impose carbon offset requirements on its proposed Worsley mine expansion that are “way, way above’’ what is needed, and has flagged that other developers should be on notice.

The company in July said the long-term viability of the integrated bauxite mining and alumina refining operations at Worsley were in doubt after a five-year environmental approvals process for the expansion resulted in what it said were “beyond reasonable’’ conditions.

The expansion would extend mining at Worsley into new bauxite deposits within state forests, giving the operation another 15 years of life.

Mr Kerr said on Thursday that WA’s Environmental Protection Agency was pushing for carbon offsets for the program that were unduly onerous and went well beyond what is envisaged under the federal Safeguard Mechanism.

2:21 pm August 29, 2024

Aussie banking customers 'overbanked': Westpac CEO

Glenda Korporaal

Australian banking customers were “overbanked” in the metropolitan areas when the banking services of Australia Post were taken into account, Westpac chief executive Peter King told the House of Representative Economics Committee in Canberra on Thursday.

He said when metropolitan bank branches were added to those of Australia Post offices which offer banking services it meant that the cities were “overbanked.”

Some 3,500 Australia Post offices around the country which can handle banking transactions.

“We don’t need all the coverage that we have in metro Australia,” Mr King said.

He said Australia Post was currently only providing two per cent of Westpac’s cash transactions with most of its cash transactions being handled through its ATMs with some cash withdrawals also happening through supermarkets.

He said the banks were seeing reduced use of their bank branches.

“The branch networks are being used less and less,” he said.

“We now have a team called virtual banking which is a combination of video banking as well as the traditional phone based call centres,” he said.

“There are a lot of non cash transactions being done by video,” he said.

2:03 pm August 29, 2024

Westpac's 96pc transactions virtual: King

Glenda Korporaal

Some 96 per cent of Westpac bank transactions are now done digitally, chief executive Peter King has told the House Economics Committee in Canberra on Thursday.

“We have a lot of non cash transactions being done by video from home,” he said. He said Westpac currently had a moratorium on closing any more regional branches until 2027.

But being able to bank from home “gives more opportunities in regional Australia.” “96 per cent of transactions are virtual in one way or another,” he said. “The change is happening, but some people prefer going into branches.”

1:59 pm August 29, 2024

Consumers doing the 'heavy lifting' on slowdown: Westpac

Glenda Korporaal

The consumer is “doing the heavy lifting” in terms of slowing the economy, Westpac chief executive Peter King has told the House of Representatives of Economics on Thursday.

“Activity on credit cards, debit cards has gone flat, “ he said. On a per capita basis, he said, spending on credit cards had been cut back. “The consumer is doing the heavy lifting in terms of the slowdown in the economy.”

He said there were “two speeds” in the economy with those with mortgagees doing it tougher and others who had savings better off. Westpac borrowers needing some assistance were more likely to be first home buyers who were owner occupiers and people with high loan to valuation ratios.

He said there had been increasing competition in the mortgage industry, particularly with Macquarie Group becoming more active in the sector in recent years. Mortgage brokers were also becoming more important in the home loan origination sector with three quarters of new mortgages being written by brokers.

1:44 pm August 29, 2024

Restructured Cromwell books $532m loss

Ben Wilmot

The listed Cromwell Property Group has fallen to $531.6m loss after a year of restructuring its business in which sold off its European operation and was hit by the drop in local office values.

The company’s headline loss was a 19.8 per cent fall on fiscal 2023, driven by both the valuation falls as it lower-grade offices were hit and took write downs as it exited its European operations.

The group says that it is now well-positioned to grow its operation using a more “capital light” model where it sets up news funds as the commercial property cycle turns.

Cromwell chair Dr Gary Weiss said the company has reached “a significant and exciting turning point”.

“The sale of $1.6bn of non-core assets over the last few years has positioned the group well, with low debt and gearing, providing investment capacity for value accretive growth in Australia moving forward,” he said.

Cromwell’s exit from Europe helped it slash debt by $665m and its gearing is down to 38.9 per cent, even as the value of its investment portfolio fell by 5 per cent in the half. Shares are up 1 per cent in afternoon trading to 42c.

1:33 pm August 29, 2024

ASX 200 trims fall to 0.4pc as US futures rebound

David Rogers

Australia's stock market remains well supported on dips despite negative US leads and sharp falls in reporting companies like Wesfarmers and MinRes.

The S&P/ASX 200 is down 0.4 per cent at 8038.3 after dipping to 8017.7.

After bouncing about 6 per cent in three weeks, the ASX 200 recovered all of a 0.7 per cent intraday fall on Wednesday and looks similarly well supported today.

Nvidia remains down about 7 per cent afterhours but S&P 500 futures have more than halved their intraday fall to 0.4 per cent so perhaps the US won't be down.

Wesfarmers is down 3.9 per cent and MinRes is down 6.8 per cent after reporting but both have stopped making new intraday lows.

BHP is down 0.9 per cent after trimming much of its intraday fall.

Woolworths is off 3.3 per cent after Barrejoey downgraded.

Meanwhile the banks are taking up the slack with the majors up 0.4-0.8 per cent.