Australia’s June 30 (full year and half year) profit reporting season steps up this week with around 15 major companies reporting.
In terms of market influence, the half year report on Wednesday from Rio Tinto will be one of most important with investors watching for a higher dividend and an upbeat outlook with iron ore prices at the moment stronger than expected.
Other companies reporting include Genworth Mortgage Australia, Resmed, Rio, Suncorp, Crown Resorts and Tabcorp and Downer EDI which should also release an update about its intentions for Spotless.
The AMP’s chief economist, Dr Shane Oliver says 2016-17 profits for the market as a whole are likely to have increased by around 18%, driven by a huge 135% gain in resources profits on the back of the rebound in commodity prices.
Profit growth for the rest of the market is likely to be around 5.5% led by retailers, utilities, healthcare stocks and financials. As always in a low interest rate world dividends will be a key focus.
So far we have seen weak annual figures from listed investment companies such as Milton, Australian Foundation, Mirrabooka and Djerriwarrh, and a reasonably solid outcome for GUD (despite big write downs) which lifted its final dividend.
