Telstra shares will come under pressure today after the Telco pushed out a surprise profit downgrade on Friday.
The news came after trading had ended for the day, week and month.
The statement came at 4.47 pm blaming and revealed a $170 million impairment charge for its Hong Kong mobile phone business.
"As Telstra works to close its accounts for fiscal 2010, it has tested the carrying value of its assets in accordance with accounting standards.
"As a result, Telstra expects to incur a non-cash impairment of approximately $170M to the carrying value of CSL New World in those accounts.
"This is subject to Audit Committee and Board review and approval.
"Importantly, Telstra’s EBITDA and EBIT guidance that was provided to the market in February 2010 is based on underlying business performance and therefore excludes the impairment.
"On this basis, Telstra retains this guidance for fiscal 2010.
"However, because of the impairment, it is likely that both reported EBITDA and EBIT will decline slightly for the fiscal year."
Given the company was forecasting "low single digit" earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the 2010 year, the end result could be a "negative single digit" which would be a new development in financial spinning.
Analysts had been forecasting a fall in earnings, so the impact on the shares could be minimal.
Telstra CEO David Thodey had reaffirmed guidance on June 22, when unveiling the NBN agreement with the federal government.
The prospect of the federal government losing power will see that NBN deal dropped by a Liberal Party government.
That could see the Telstra share price trashed and raise doubts over the 28c a share annual dividend from the company.
It makes Telstra the company most vulnerable to the result of the August 21 poll.
Its results are currently due on August 12, nine days before the poll.
Should it declare a dividend before the poll?
Macquarie Group shares closed down 3% on Friday after the company produced another of its elliptical trading updates.
The shares were sold off, falling $1.19 to end at $37.20 after the bank told the market that the uncertain market conditions and weak merger and trading activity had impacted its businesses.
The shares had been down almost 7% at one stage in trading early Friday, but came back after the AGM.
The update confirmed, sort of, comments made by chief financial officer Greg Ward in July about how the growing market uncertainty was impacting Macquarie’s trading income.
In short the impact is bad for some parts of the bank’s business, but no impact for other parts.
The update was issued before Friday’s AGM by CEO Nick Moore who said earnings in the quarter to June 2010 were slightly ahead of the subdued quarter a year ago but weak markets were hitting the securities, investment banking and trading business that make up more than half its revenue.
No figures were given by Mr Moore who said "a lowering in confidence levels across all markets has meant that the global investment banking fee pool, which includes debt capital markets, equity capital markets, and mergers and acquisitions, was the lowest June quarter global investment banking fee pool since 2004.
"Weak global market conditions caused Macquarie Securities, Macquarie Capital and Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities to all make lower contributions to the June 2010 quarter result compared to the prior corresponding period (pcp). Corporate and Asset Finance, Macquarie Funds Group and Banking and Financial Services all made higher contributions to June 2010 quarter earnings as a result of the successful implementation of initiatives undertaken over the last 12 to 18 months," he said.
"While there were no significant one-off items during the June quarter, high levels of cash continue to impact current earnings.
“As foreshadowed, uncertain market conditions make short-term forecasting very difficult,” Mr Moore said.
“These market conditions are significantly impacting activity levels in Macquarie Securities, Macquarie Capital and Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities.
"Accordingly, unless the market conditions experienced in the June 2010 quarter improve, we do not expect these groups to meet FY10 results in FY11.
“The full year performances of Corporate and Asset Finance, Macquarie Funds, and Banking and Financial Services are expected to exceed FY10,” he said.
Clear as mud, and the market reacted accordingly.
The interim profit this week from Rio Tinto might be a bit boomier than some investors think.
A surge in iron ore earnings will offset lower earnings from coal which is doing badly, with Coal and Allied reporting a 50% drop in earnings; and uranium, with Energy Resources of Australia revealing a first-half profit plunge off the back of the sharp fall in production and sales.
Higher maintenance costs and a stronger Australian dollar also took their toll.
But the second quarter report from Vale, the biggest iron ore exporter in the
