Sydney, Melbourne Housing Lift Mirvac
Like Stockland, AV Jennings (AVJ) and Boral (BLD), Mirvac (MGR) has confirmed it rode the housing boom very nicely and very profitably in the six months to December 31.
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Tolls Drive Transurban Higher
Transurban (TCL) has boosted guidance for its 2015-16 distribution as strong revenues from toll roads helped the company report a first-half net profit of $81 million.
Read MoreWall St Wobbles In Dramatic Session
Gold soared, oil plunged, bond yields slid as prices soared, investors fretted and stocks fell into a global bear market in another day of dramatic trading.
Read MoreRio Dumps Dividend Policy
No repeat of the Commonwealth Bank’s (CBA) justification for retaining a flat dividend payout to shareholders at Rio Tinto (RIO) – even though it has left its final for 2015 flat, along with the full year return. Rio plans to slash its 2016 payout to shareholders.
Read MoreOZ Minerals Rewards Shareholders
OZ Minerals produced one of the surprise results of the December 31 reporting period, and as a result has rewarded shareholders with a higher final dividend and a higher payout for the year as a whole.
Read MoreCBA Hints At ‘Dividend Sustainability’
We will hear a lot in the next few weeks about a financial concept we have not encountered called ‘dividend sustainability’ – it is the phrase and concept companies will use to justify decisions and we saw that for the first time with yesterday’s interim result from the Commonwealth bank.
Read MoreBoral, Stockland Ride Different Sides Of The Boom
The half year reports from Boral and Stockland gave us two sides of the housing boom yesterday – Boral from the supply of building materials such as bricks and concrete – Stockland from the building and marketing of homes to new and existing buyers (investors and private buyers and retirees).
Read MoreCBA Lifts Cash Earnings 4%, Dividend Unchanged
The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) will pay an unchanged interim dividend of $1.98 a share for the December half year after reporting a modest 4% rise in cash earnings to $4.8 billion.
Read MoreBuilding Boom Lifts Nick Scali
Sydney-based furniture retailer Nick Scali (NCK) managed to offset the wave of selling across most of the market yesterday with a solid interim earnings result and an equally solid upgrade to full year estimates.
Read MoreFerrovial Moves Goalposts On Broadspectrum Bid
The imbroglio which is the $692 million Ferrovial takeover for services and detention centre operator Broadspectrum (BRS) will continue for a few more weeks amid rising uncertainty about a key federal government contract.
Read MoreBoQ Mistimes Downgrade
Whoa, what a way to ride the market lower. On a day when bank stocks were sold off heavily, dragging the wider market lower, the Bank of Queensland (BOQ) chose to reveal that it would have to take a $15 million hit to cash earnings for the six months to March 31 as it scopes a series of job cuts to try and protect the profit line against a margin squeeze.
Read MoreOzForex Ends Talks With Western Union
Dump of the day was OzForex (OFX) whose shares plunged 42% after the foreign exchange trading company revealed that the marriage bans with Western Union has ended – and, oh, there’s an earnings downgrade.
Read MoreWall St Bleeds On Global Bank Worries
Wall Street might have halved its losses in the final half hour of trading this morning, but the ASX will start with a nasty 80 point loss as global markets were once again rattled by falling financial stocks and tottering US tech giants.
Read MoreHigh Expectations Hurt JB Hi-Fi
Investors were left undecided about the interim result from JB Hi-Fi (JBH) yesterday – yes the figures showed the company had not been hit by whatever storms had brought down Dick Smith, guidance for the full year was raised and interim dividend was lifted.
Read MoreAnsell Confirms Weak Result
A hesitant relief rally in Ansell (ANN) shares yesterday after the company followed up the earnings and guidance downgrade of late last week, with a set of interim figures that contained no new surprises.
Read MoreAsciano Backs Improved Qube Bid
The takeover battle for Asciano (AIO) continued at glacial pace yesterday with the company’s board, as expected changing recomendations from the US-Canadian investment group Brookfield to the consortium led by local group Qube Logistics (QUB).
Read MoreDiary: Reporting Season In Focus
Markets will dominate news flow this week around the world, even with China’s nervy bourses closed for the week for the Lunar New Year and others in Asia shut on varying days.
Read MoreGold Posts Best Week Since 2013
Gold had its best week last week since July 2013, with a near 5% rise amid fears of a slowdown in major economies such as the US and China and a slowing in the pace of US interest rate rises. In contrast oil futures had a losing week – the fist in three.
Read MoreMarkets Retreat Into The Red
Markets retreated on Friday night as investors were left confused by the state of the US economy, the US jobs market and the future direction of American interest rates.
Read MoreRio, CBA Highlight Reporting Season
The Australian December half profit reporting season ramps up this week with 27 major companies reporting including JB HiFi, Cochlear, Commonwealth Bank, Rio Tinto and the ASX.
Read MoreLinkedIn Leads Tech Sell-Off
The big story from global markets last week was the gathering sell off in tech stocks, especially on Wall Street where the Nasdaq finished in a sea of red ink.
Read MoreSouth32 Slashes 620 Jobs
Miner South32 (S32), the BHP Billiton (BHP) spin-off, yesterday took the long-handled axe to its asset values and chopped them by $US1.7 billion (or close to $A2.4 billion) in a major clean up of its accounts ahead of the interim financial results on February 25.
Read More‘Satisfactory’ Macquarie Marked Down
The Australian investment community is a curious beast – it blindly cheers companies doing well without question, then at the first hint of a problem, out comes the ‘sell orders’ and there’s a brutal realignment which quite often is nothing more than an overreaction by hedge funds looking for an easy turn in a falling market by shorting the shares in question.
Read MoreDowner Manages Expectations
In contrast to the whacking handed out yesterday to shares in companies like Programmed Maintenance Services (PRG) and Macquarie Group (MQG), investors chased Downer EDI (DOW) shares higher yesterday despite a weak interim result and a small trim to full year guidance.
Read MoreEnergy Woes Scramble Programmed
The punishment of Macquarie Group (MQG) shares yesterday might have seemed illogical to many in the market, but the treatment meted out to shares in Programmed Maintenance Services (PRG) seems justified after it sprang a surprise earnings downgrade and impairment charge on the market via a “business update”.
Read MoreNavitas Earnings Jump
Shares in listed education group Navitas (NVT) fell 2% yesterday after jumping 11% to an 11-month high on Tuesday after it revealed a solid rise in earnings for the half year to December, and reaffirmed its full-year earnings guidance.
Read MoreAnsell Flags Softer Earnings
Ansell (ANN) shares will cop a pounding when trading resumes this morning after produced a surprise earnings downgrade at 6pm yesterday, well after the close of trading which saw the local market sold off heavily in a 2% plus or $34 billion crunch.
Read MoreOZ Minerals Bucks Commodity Gloom
Oz Minerals (OZL) sprang a surprise yesterday with the news it plans to expand its underground output capacity by 30%.
Read MoreTrade Deficit Blows Out In December
The slide in global commodity prices crunched Australia’s trade account in December and the 2015 calendar year, according to Bureau of Statistics figures issued yesterday.
Read MoreCIMIC Corners Sedgman
The brief $256 million takeover battle involving CIMIC (CIM) and Brisbane based Sedgman (SDM) is heading for resolution after the Takeovers Panel has rejected a request by Sedgman to unwind share purchases made by CIMIC.
Read MoreRBA Maintains Easing Bias
The Reserve Bank has further softened its already soft easing bias and made it clear local interest rates will be cut to ‘lend support to demand’ in the economy should the recent rise in volatility on global markets threaten a slowing in demand and the pace of growth.
Read MoreFletcher Unveils Infrastructure Push
Shares in Fletcher Building (FBU) rose nearly 4% yesterday on the news of a major expansion move and corporate revamp.
Read MoreOil Drags Markets Lower Again
The Aussie market is looking at a nasty 80 point plus slide this morning after oil prices resumed their slide overnight, sending markets across Asia, Europe and the US sharply lower.
Read MoreArgo Lifts H1 Profit 8.9%
Shares in Adelaide-based listed investment company Argo (ARG) edged up, then eased yesterday after the company revealed a reasonable interim result and higher dividend.
Read MoreFerrovial Fires Back At Broadspectrum
Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial yesterday fired back at its takeover target Broadspectrum (BRS) (nee Transfield Services) telling its investors that there’s a good chance their shares will fall sharply if they reject the Spanish group’s $1.35 a share offer.
Read MoreKathmandu Improves Sales, Margins
Does an improvement in Christmas trading justify Kathmandu’s (KMD) rejection of the $1.80 a share offer last year from fellow Kiwi retailing group Briscoe Group?
Read MoreBHP Billiton Credit Rating Downgraded
The pressure is mounting on BHP Billiton (BHP) to cut or drop its dividend.
Read MoreVale Scraps Dividend
And now its down to Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals and BHP Billiton to see which company blinks in declaring dividends in the next few weeks after contradictory stances on Friday from two global resources giants in Chevron and Vale, the huge Brazilian miner.
Read MoreGold Higher On BOJ Move
The Bank of Japan’s move to start paying negative interest rates could be a big game changer so far as commodity markets are concerned.
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