It has been a dismal end to the trading week for the Australian share market, finishing its fifth and final session this week in negative territory. The local bourse dropped at the open and sunk deeper into the red in the afternoon, before closing 0.79 per cent lower. The materials space was the biggest drag on the market this session with losses across the board, aside from the gold stocks which experienced a bounce today.
At the closing bell the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 46 points lower to finish at 5,739.
The value of trades was $7.7 billion on volume of 1 billion shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were CSL limited
(ASX:CSL), MYOB
(ASX:MYO) and BHP Billiton
(ASX:BHP).
On the futures market the SPI is 52 points down.
US marketsLooking at Wall Street, US major indexes were mixed over the four trading days this week: The Dow Jones Industrial Average has added 0.9 per cent. The S&P 500 Index has added 0.54 per cent. The NASDAQ has lost 0.05 per cent. The 100 Index has added 0.14 per cent.
Company newsCharter Hall Group
(ASX:CHC) has reported a 21 per cent rise in net profit to $173.3 million for the first half of 2017, compared to $143.5 million at the same time last year. Funds Under Management jumped by 8.6 per cent to $19 billion in the first half. The property funds manager declared an interim dividend of 14.4 cents per share. Shares in Charter Hall closed 4.42 per cent higher at $5.20.
Corporate Travel Management
(ASX:CTD) has reported a 28 per cent jump in net profit to $22.1 million for H1 of 2017.
Monadelphous Group Limited
(ASX:MND) has announced that it has secured new contracts and additional works for customers in the resources, energy and infrastructure markets.
Incitec Pivot
(ASX:IPL) has announced that after almost 8 years in the role, James Fazzino will be stepping down as Managing Director and CEO.
Best and worst performersThe sector with the least losses was Utilities losing 0.01 per cent to close at 8,101. The worst performing sector was Materials, losing 2.09 per cent to close at 9,978 points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was NextDC
(ASX:NXT), rising 12.3 per cent to close at $3.56. Shares in Asaleo Care
(ASX:AHY) and Super Retail
(ASX:SUL) also closed higher.
The worst performing stock was MYOB
(ASX:MYO), dropping 6.78 per cent to close at $3.44. Shares in Whitehaven Coal
(ASX:WHC) and Seven Group Holdings
(ASX:SVW) also closed lower.
IPOsMetalsTechLimited
(ASX:MTC) started trading today. The lithium explorer and developer listed with an issue price of $0.20, opened at $0.26 and closed at $0.27.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at $US1,250 an ounce.
Light crude is $0.77 higher at $US54.36 a barrel.
The Australian dollar is buying $US0.7714.
