ASX 200 rises in late surge; Reilly's new Perpetual CEO; Brambles, WiseTech hit records; Corporate Travel, Fletcher tank

Energy sector dips while tech stocks soar. Santos, Corporate Travel, IAG, Domino's down earnings miss expectations. Brambles' $500m buyback wins over investors. New CEOs at Perpetual, Atlas Arteria as PEXA search begins. WiseTech hits record.

Oil price volatility has made for a rollercoaster ride for investors in energy giants at home and globally. Picture: George Frey/AFP

Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Wednesday, August 21. The ASX 200 index closed 0.2 per cent higher to 8010.50 points. Wall Street indexes snapped their long winning streaks overnight.

The Aussie dollar is trading around US67.42c at 5.05pm AEST.

Updates

4:52 pm August 21, 2024

ASX 200 rises for ninth-day straight

David Rogers

Australia's stock market recovers from an intraday dip to end up for a ninth-consecutive day despite slight falls on Wall Street after a 10 per cent rebound.

The S&P/ASX 200 index ends up 0.2 per cent at a three-week high daily close of 8010.5 after dipping to a three-day low of 7951.5.

The ASX 200 is a little over 1 per cent away from record highs.

It has bounced 5 per cent from its August low after a sharp pullback on US recession fears which have been allayed to some extent by positive economic data.

Sectors were mixed with gains in tech, materials, industrials, staples and communications outweighing falls in energy, financials, utilities, property and health care.

WiseTech surged 18 per cent to a record close of $111.71 on a strong outlook.

Brambles raced up 9 per cent as its profit and outlook also beat estimates.

Fortescue jumped 4.1 per cent, recovering strongly from two-year lows as Singapore iron ore futures rose 2.4 per cent to $US97.75 a tonne after hitting a 21-month low near $92 this week. BHP rose 1.6 per cent and Rio Tinto added 1.3 per cent.

Santos dived 4.4 per cent as as its profit disappointed.

Breville rose 4.7 per cent and IAG lost 3 per cent after reporting, but Charter Hall soared 16 per cent and Healius soared 13 per cent after their results.

CBA fell 2.6 per cent ex-dividend. Other banks were flat.

4:04 pm August 21, 2024

Richard White $1.7bn richer

Jared Lynch

WiseTech founder and chief executive Richard White is $2.1bn richer after the software giant’s share price soared more than 18 per cent on the back of bumper profit and revealing its next wave of growth.

Crucially, Mr White said it’s also from "the big death dive" which has plagued some of the world’s biggest tech players via "silly" wages.

At WiseTech’s Sydney headquarters it was a cause for celebration for employees — 88 per cent of whom hold share equity plans — and vindication of Mr White’s strategy to hold his nerve and avoid paying sky-high salaries during the pandemic-fuelled wage boom.

"I walk around the office and everybody is smiling because they have all got shares," Mr White told The Australian.

"That’s very attractive. When wages went nuts — and tech wages were at the extremes of this, they were the real outliers in terms of inflation — we just passively went ‘OK, we are not going to participate in that. We’re not going to pay silly prices’. We are just going to be as good as we can possibly be."

3:12 pm August 21, 2024

Price rises won't dampen customers: Lottery boss

Glen Norris

The Lottery Corporation says a planned price hike for its popular Saturday Lotto is unlikely to dampen cash-strapped Australians’ willingness to take part in the weekly draw.

The operator of the Lotto, Powerball and Keno games reported a 13.8 per cent increase in annual revenue to $4bn as more Australians signed up despite the cost-of-living crisis. Net profit surged 21.3 per cent to $411.8m as customers rose to a record 4.75 million.

The Lottery Corporation CEO Sue van der Merwe. Picture: Dan Peled

Chief executive Sue van der Merwe said lotteries continued to be popular among Australians of all ages, with a record $200m Powerball jackpot last year attracting long queues at stores.

"A draw of this size gets Australia talking, captivates customers and sees queues forming in retail stores," said Ms van der Merwe.

"At its peak, we sold more than 9000 tickets a minute, with searches for Powerball dominating Google and social media search terms as that draw made headlines across the country. The draw introduced 170,000 new active registered players and 40 per cent of them have made a subsequent purchase. These new players skew younger and are more likely to use digital channels."

She said the amount of the price increase for Saturday Lotto, which was likely to occur at the end of the financial year, has not been determined.

3:06 pm August 21, 2024

Labor not undermining new builds: Chalmers

Jack Quail

Jim Chalmers has maintained Labor’s current infrastructure rollout is not undermining efforts to build new homes, despite concerns raised by the Reserve Bank.

“The government's view is that we need to build housing and infrastructure, not housing or infrastructure, and that one can enable the other and we’re focussed on both,” the Treasurer told Parliament on Wednesday.

Dr Chalmers’ comments follow statements made by RBA governor Michele Bullock last week, saying public infrastructure investment was diverting workers away from home building and exacerbating construction delays.

But, the Treasurer maintained the government had sequenced the rollout of public infrastructure in an “intelligent” manner.

“The infrastructure minister manages that $120bn pipeline in a way to make sure that we can actually build what we are committed to building,” Dr Chalmers said.

2:09 pm August 21, 2024

Late arrivals mark Rex's horror July

Robyn Ironside

Rex’s difficult run in the lead up to administration has been highlighted by new on time performance data showing the normally punctual airline had a horror July, with almost a third of flights arriving late.

Only Jetstar turned in a worse performance in the month by just 0.2 per cent, however the low fares carrier cancelled 299 flights or 3.7 per cent to Rex’s 159 (2.6 per cent). The crippling Crowdstrike outage was blamed for Jetstar’s result, due to the “significant operational challenges” caused by the software failure.

Rex’s issues were less clear, but after going into administration on the evening of July 30, administrators EY pointed to pilot shortages and supply chain issues for the airline’s woes.

Across all airlines, only 71.1 per cent of flights were on time, well down on the long term average of 80.9 per cent.

See who laid claim to the title of most punctual airline for July.

1:15 pm August 21, 2024

10 years jail for tax agent, client over fraud

Valerina Changarathil

A former tax agent and his client who dishonestly made over $4m through tax refund fraud and avoidance have recieved a combined 10 years and 6 months in jail.

Banned tax agent Ravindra Narayan from Melbourne was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 2 years and 9 months. Business owner Duane Saltmer from Townsville was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 2 years and 6 months.

Between 2012 and 2015, Mr Saltmer and Mr Narayan submitted false business activity statements claiming GST refunds for companies controlled by Mr Saltmer that the companies were not entitled to. They also claimed false deductions for the companies and evaded income tax by intentionally omitting assessable income in Mr Saltmer's personal income tax return. Mr Narayan was also charged with evading income tax by intentionally omitting assessable income in his personal income tax return.

In 2015, the ATO audited the tax affairs of Mr Saltmer's companies and discovered that the pair were operating a false invoice scheme to defraud the Commonwealth. An additional audit into the individual income tax affairs of Mr Saltmer uncovered that Mr Narayan, in his capacity as an accountant and tax agent, had lodged income tax returns containing false amounts on behalf of Mr Saltmer.

"People who deliberately cheat the tax system can expect to face serious penalties, including jail time, Assistant Australian Taxation Office commissioner Jade Hawkins said.

1:09 pm August 21, 2024

'Come clean': finance union to BoQ on cuts

Joyce Moullakis

The Finance Sector Union has called on the Bank of Queensland's leadership to "come clean" on its plans to cut jobs.

The Australian on Tuesday revealed the bank has begun consulting with employees as part of a plan to axe as many as 600 positions. The FSU is meeting with BoQ representatives at 2.30pm AEST on Wednesday to discuss job cuts.

"Bank of Queensland staff are today anxiously awaiting news," said FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano.

"As part of a pledge to the market to deliver $200m in productivity by 2026, BOQ have already axed 250 jobs. Speculation that a further 600 jobs cut would be a devastating blow to workers at BOQ … Make no mistake, when BOQ says simplification, it means job cuts."

Ms Angrisano said further cuts meant workers would be expected to do more with fewer resources. She also mentioned BoQ had to set aside $50m as part of an enforceable undertaking linked to lax risk management issues.

"Workers are today paying the price for management poor risk governance practice. BOQ need to come clean on their plans. Workers have been asking for greater transparency."

1:09 pm August 21, 2024 Highlight

Santos down on profit miss, oil falls

Valerina Changarathil

Shares in Santos are down nearly 5 per cent to $7.46 just before 1pm, reflecting its weaker than expected results and the sector-wide impact of oil price declines.

Core profit of $US654m was a 5 per cent miss versus consensus estimates and "well below" Citi's $US801m expectations. But Citi, which is rated neutral on Santos, prefers the oil and gas producer over other pure-play E&P companies Woodside and Beach Petroleum.

"STO is improving the quality of its cash flows and on the cusp of de-gearing rapidly whilst also growing distributions," Citi analysts James Byrne and Tom Wallington say. "The trajectory of asset quality is starkly different to WDS and BPT where we see ongoing degradation of the quality of the portfolios and both names locked into M&A with questionable returns."

But Citi also outlined a number of risks to its investment case and target price of $8, including delays to its Barossa project, PNG LNG performance, Narrabri CSG and Dorado deferrals, oil price outlook and uncertainty around possible government intervention in its GLNG project, forcing it to prioritise gas to domestic customers.

Overnight oil price falls added to Santos' woes with the benchmark Brent crude now sitting near $US77 per barrel. Woodside is down 2 per cent to $25.78 and Beach Energy is off 2.5 per cent to $1.28. Overall the energy index – down more than 3 per cent – is the biggest drag on the ASX 200, which is 0.3 per cent lower at 7972 points at 1.05pm AEST.

12:40 pm August 21, 2024

Deepfake ban laws pass Senate

Jack Quail

Proposed laws to ban the non-consensual creation and dissemination of deepfake pornography have passed the Senate, paving the way for their passage through the parliament.

A deepfake refers to an image or video which digitally manipulates an individual’s likeness to falsely portray them performing an act or making a statement that they have not in fact done. The rise in artificial intelligence has led to an explosion of pornographic deepfakes.

“This insidious behaviour can be a method of degrading, humiliating and dehumanising victims,” Attorney General Mark Dreyus said in a statement on Wednesday. “Such acts are overwhelmingly targeted towards women and girls, perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes and contributing to gender-based violence."

Those found guilty of sharing non-consensual deepfake sexually explicit material will be subject to serious criminal penalties of up to six years imprisonment.

12:29 pm August 21, 2024

Pathology not viable without govt help: Healius

Cameron England

The amounts pathology companies are paid for procedures such as diabetes and cholesterol tests by the federal government are not sufficient to maintain a “sustainable and viable sector’’, Healius chief executive Paul Anderson says.

Speaking as the company handed down its full year results on Wednesday, Mr Anderson said the government had introduced incremental changes to rebate payments in the most recent budget, but broadly, payments for pathology tests had not increased in 25 years.

Companies in the sector are running a Keep Pathology Bulk-Billed campaign, arguing that the gap between the costs of administering the tests and what companies are paid by the government continues to grow. “We will continue the sector-based Australian pathology campaign to keep pathology bulk billed,’’ Mr Anderson said on Wednesday.

At 12.30pm AEST, shares in Healius are up 11 per cent to $1.64.