The ASX is heading for another weak start to a week after Eurozone shares fell 0.3% on Friday and the US S&P 500 finished flat, after giving up an early 1% rise.
That saw ASX 200 futures fall 12 points or 0.2% meaning a less than enthusiastic start to the week’s trading.
That will be after Friday’s 2.9 point fade on Friday for the ASX 200 which ended the week on an uncertain footing.
That uncertainty was despite a 43.8 points, or 0.7% gain for the ASX 200 last week which ended, higher at 5939.5, while the broader All Ordinaries rose 32.1 points to 6042.7.
A big loser for the week – discount retailer, The Reject Shop – saw its shares fall more than 45% by Friday (including 6.4% on Friday alone) after it issued a surprisingly weak profit downgrade for the first half of 2018-19, and raised doubts about the sustainability of the dividend.
Shares in Australian Pharmaceutical Industries though ended the week up 6.7% at $1.74, despite an 8% fall in net profit. The dividend was pushed up half a cent to 7.5 cents for the year.
For the first time in four weeks financials did well with Westpac up 1.5% to $26.85, the Commonwealth Bank rising 1.3% to $67.92 and AMP storming 6.2% higher to $3.24.
ANZ shares added half a percent to end at $26.04 on Friday while NAB shares eased 0.9% over the week ending on $25.67.
Insurance broker Steadfast’s shares rose more than 10% (to end at $2.95) after the company upgraded its guidance for the 2019 financial year on Thursday.
That saw price rises for major insurers with Suncorp shares up 3.5% to $14.07 and Insurance Australia Group ended 3.3% higher at to $7.20.
A2 Milk shares rose 6.3% to $9.50 after maintained guidance for 2018-19. Rival Bellamy’s shares tumbled 3.2% on Friday to end at $8.27 – that left them with a small weekly gain of 0.7%.
Higher global gold prices saw Newcrest Mining shares rise 3.7% to $20.67 and Saracen Minerals rose 12.7% to $2.39. Shares in Northern Star Resources ended up 2.2% for the week thanks to a 4.3% gain on Thursday after the company had earlier upgraded the gold resource at its newly acquired Pogo gold mine in Alaska.
But major miners were weaker despite issuing solid quarterly production and sales updates during the week. BHP fell 2.2% to $33.10, South32 slid 3.1% to $3.76 and Rio Tinto closed at $77.45, down 0.7%.
Afterpay Touch shares closed lower, with most of the losses coming from a 19% on Wednesday afternoon after news broke that Afterpay would be caught up in a Senate inquiry. The inquiry is set to focus on parts of the financial sector not covered by the royal commission. Its shares fell 15.3% to $12.50.
And shares in UK bank (and NAB spin-0ff) CYBG lost nearly 10% last week at $4.93 after completing its £1.7billion ($A3.1 billion) takeover of Virgin Money. That saw the resignations of Virgin Money’s chairman and chief executive.
