ASX ends week higher; Santos, Woodside lead energy rally; TPG plunges after reporting

ASX on its best winning streak in 15 months with a fifth week of gains. TPG plunges, AGL profit hit, Woodside leads coal rally and gas security mechanism to last till 2030.

Equity markets are responding to major earnings updates. Picture: David Swift

Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Friday, August 19. The Australian sharemarket closed the session unchanged as it posted a fifth week of gains - its best winning streak since May 2021.

The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 1.72 points higher to 7114.50, taking total gains for the week to 1.2 per cent, or 81.99 points.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones index rose 0.1 per cent while the S&P 500 index lifted by 0.2 per cent and the Nasdaq index gained 0.2 per cent.

Fresh retail updates, including a profit warning from Kohl’s, kept investors busy as did home sales data, which showed a further cooling in July as demand fell.

US 10-year bond yields fell to near 2.87 per cent while US 2-year yields declined to near 3.21 per cent.

Oil prices are up with the international benchmark Brent crude oil price 3.1 per cent stronger at $US96.59 per barrel and the US Nymex up 2.7 per cent to $US90.50 per barrel.

Iron ore futures is largely flat with a 0.1 per cent gain to $US104.72 per tonne.

The Aussie dollar was near US69.15c at the US close.