It has been a dismal start to the trading week for the Australian share market, following on from weak leads from Wall Street. The local bourse plunged at the open and continued to lose its way throughout the session before closing 0.84 per cent lower. While most sectors finished the day underwater but it was the big banks and the mining heavyweights BHP and Rio Tinto that proved to be the biggest drag on the market.
The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 43 points down to finish at 5,469.
The value of trades was $5 billion on volume of 726 million shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA), Wesfarmers Limited
(ASX:WES) and Westpac Banking Corporation
(ASX:WBC).
On the futures market the SPI is 37 points down.
Company newsBeach Energy Limited
(ASX:BPT) has posted a net loss of $589 million for FY16 which is $75 million higher than last year. The company says revenue was also down 23 per cent to $564.6 million. The company has declared a dividend of 0.5 cent per share. Shares in Beach Energy closed flat at $0.55.
Austal Limited
(ASX:ASB) has announced a net loss of $84.2 million after a one off downwards adjustment to its Littoral Combat Ship program following a design change.
Auckland Airport Limited
(ASX:AIA) has seen a strong lift in international traffic driving revenue nearly 13 per cent higher.
Estia Health Limited
(ASX:EHE) says revenue was up 50 per cent to $446.5 million but it had missed some of its targets.
Best and worst performersThe best performing sector was Telcos adding 0.2 per cent to close at 1,967. The worst performing sector was Energy, losing 1.6 per cent to close at 8,465 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Austal, rising 12.82 per cent to close at $1.32. Shares in Mesoblast and Super Retail also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was Estia Health, dropping 16.67 per cent to close at $4.10. Shares in Evolution Mining and Saracen also closed lower.
IPOsSilver Heritage Group Limited
(ASX:SVH) started trading today. The casino operator listed with an issue price of $0.40, opened at $0.40 and closed at $0.37. Family Zone Cyber Safety Limited
(ASX:FZO) also started trading today. The cyber security platform listed with an issue price of $0.20, opened at $0.25 and closed at $0.29.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,319 an ounce.
Light crude is $0.31 up at $US47.64 a barrel.
The Australian dollar is buying $US0.7550.
