It’s been a choppy day of trade for the Australian share market, closing 0.2 per cent lower this Friday and gaining 3 points over the week. The bourse dived at the open, following negative Wall Street leads, and failed to recover with a bout of company news keeping us underwater. Macquarie Group
(ASX:MQG) sold out of Macquarie Atlas Road
(ASX:MQA), which saw it lose 4 per cent, dragging down the property sector, with the likes of Dexus
(ASX:DXS) losing 2 per cent and Westfield
(ASX:WFD) shedding 1.5 per cent.
We also saw selling in financials with the major banks falling. But after midday, the ASX200 clawed back some of its early losses with Cleanaway
(ASX:CWY) gaining about 4.5 per cent at one stage, while, toll road giant Transurban
(ASX:TCL) pulled the industrial sector up after it completed an almost $2 billion capital raise
At the closing bell the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 0.23 per cent lower or 14 points down for the day, closing at 5,997 points. Over the week we gained 3 points.
The value of trades was $7.7 billion on volume of 1.01 billion shares at the close of trade. The top three stocks by value were Macquarie Atlas Road
(ASX:MQA), Rio Tinto Limited
(ASX:RIO) and Westfield
(ASX:WFD).
On the futures market the SPI is 13 points up.
Company news nowCommonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA) says it’s considering AUSTRAC’s alleged breaches and will file an amended defense. The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) allegedly CBA made an addition 100 breaches from suspicious matter reports, to due diligence breaches, breaches of ongoing risk assessment on its deposit machines. Also today, the big four bank advised its Group Executive Marketing and Strategy, Vittoria Shortt, has been given the CEO role of its New Zealand owned bank, ASB. She has been with CBA since 2002 reporting directly to CEO Ian Narev.
Macquarie Atlas Road
(ASX:MQG) shares fell about 4 per cent after Macquarie Group
(ASX:MQG) completed its 11.3 per cent sale in the property fund overnight, selling 76 million shares at $6.00 per share.
Crown Resorts
(ASX:CWN) was one the ASX’s star performers today, with its shares jumping over 3 per cent, after it announced it’s selling a vacant site on Las Vegas Boulevard for US$300 million. With plans to also sell its Ceasars shares for US$54 million and part of its Hunter Valley property NSW for $62.5 million.
And Genworth’s
(ASX:GMA) net earned premium (NEP) will be negatively impacted by about $40 million, which will see its 2017 NEP being 17 to 19 per cent lower than 2016, compared to its previous guidance. Despite that, its full year loss ratio will remain between 35 and 40 per cent.
IPOsTyre distributor, National Tyre & Wheel Limited
(ASX:NTD) started trading today, floating with an issue price of $1.00. It opened at $1.30 and closed at $1.30
Best and worst performers of the dayThe best performing sector was Industrials adding 0.9 per cent to close at 6,002.
The worst performing sector was Reits, shedding 1.00 per cent to close at 1,447. points.
The best performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Transurban Group
(ASX:TCL), rising 4.8 per cent to close at $12.80. Followed by shares in Mayne Pharma Group Limited
(ASX:MYX) and Crown Resorts Limited
(ASX:CWN) also closed higher.
The worst performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was HT&E
(ASX:HT1), dropping 7.04 per cent to close at $1.85. Followed by shares in Retail Food Group Limited
(ASX:RFG) and Macquarie Atlas Roads Group
(ASX:MQA) also closed lower.
Asian marketsJapan’s Nikkei has added 0.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has lost 1 per cent and the Shanghai Composite has lost 0.8 per cent.
Wall Street Wrapped up the four trading days this week- higher: The Dow Jones added 0.7 per cent, The S&P 500 added 0.02 per cent and the tech heavy Nasdaq gained 0.2 per cent, while the 100 index added 0.7 per cent.
Commodities and the dollar Gold is trading at $US1,255 an ounce.
Light crude is $0.44 up at $US57.20 barrel.
One Australian dollar is buying 76.72 US cents.
CryptocurrenciesBitcoin has gained 6.65 per cent in the last 24 hours to $17,490
Ethereum fallen about 10.55 per cent to $662
And Litecoin has fallen about 10.06 per cent to $275
