S&P/ASX 200 ends flat as miners fall

ASX 200 ended steady as gold miners fell. Suncorp hit 18-month high. Transurban reports record profit. Brickworks warns on lockdown cuts. Westpac sells Aust life insurance business.

Local stocks last week posted a series of record highs. Picture: AAP

Welcome to the Trading Day blog for Monday, August 9. The Australian sharemarket closed steady as  gold miners fell. There were positive leads from Wall Street, and early gains gathered pace as financials surged, but iron futures dived and precious metals were down. Suncorp's earnings have jumped and Transurban is confident of a bounce back.

Brickworks shares dived 5.4% to a 6-week low of $23.75 in early trading after the company said it has shut some NSW and QLD operations du to the pandemic.

A host of Australian companies saw their share prices hit multi-year or record highs as the S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.4% to a record intraday high of 7567. The market finished steady.

Shares of Charter Hall, Pilbara Minerals, ResMed, Reece, Sonic Health Care, Seven Group, Steadfast, Orocobre, Wesfarmers, Woolworths all hit record highs.

Healius, QBE Insurance, Suncorp, Telstra and Westgold hit multiyear highs.

US markets finished last week at fresh highs on solid jobs data.