The Australian share market held its lead in afternoon trade. At the closing bell, the ASX was 0.4 per cent or 29 points higher at 7,532.
Mining stocks pushed forward while Communications Services weighed on the index, with Telstra
(ASX:TLS) closing 0.8 per cent lower.
The Tech sector surged 1.9 per cent as WiseTech
(ASX:WTC) closed 28.5 per cent higher at $45.44, as the best-performing stock.
Buy-now-pay-later providers Afterpay and Zip Co released their full year results today. Both companies noted huge losses despite a jump in revenue. Afterpay
(ASX:APT) closed 1 per cent lower at $133.72 and Zip Co
(ASX:Z1P) closed 2.6 per cent lower at $7.13.
Mining giant BHP
(ASX:BHP) closed 1.5 per cent higher at $45.59, Rio Tinto
(ASX:RIO) closed 2.7 per cent higher at $111.5 and Fortescue Metals
(ASX:FMG) closed 2.7 per cent higher at $20.29.
Travel stocks are slowly rebounding as vaccination levels continue to rise. Flight Centre
(ASX:FLT) closed 7.1 per cent higher at $16.30 and Qantas
(ASX:QAN) closed 5.2 per cent higher at $4.86.
Onto banks, Commonwealth
(ASX:CBA) closed 0.2 per cent higher, Westpac
(ASX:WBC) closed 0.8 per cent higher, NAB
(ASX:NAB) closed 0.9 per cent higher and ANZ
(ASX:ANZ) closed 0.3 per cent higher.
NSW recorded 919 new Covid-19 cases, Victoria recorded 45 new cases and Queensland recorded 2 new cases.
Local economic news The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released their 'Construction Work Done, Australia' statement for Jun 2021. The seasonally adjusted estimate for total construction work done rose 0.8 per cent to $52,875.5 million in the June quarter.
Building work done rose 0.1 per cent to $30,563.5 million. Engineering work done rose 1.8 per cent to $22,312 million .
Company newsPlease join us for Stocks of the Hour
here. Medibank Private
(ASX:MPL) reported net profit after tax of $441.2 million in FY21, up 39.8 per cent from the prior year.
Home Consortium (ASX: HMC) reported AUM of $2.5 billion in FY21, up 144 per cent from the prior year.
APA Group
(ASX:APA), reported revenue of $2,144.5 million in FY21, up 7 per cent from the prior year.
Afterpay
(ASX:APT) reported total income in FY21 up 78 per cent from the prior year, but a loss after tax of $159.4 million.
Zip Co
(ASX:Z1P) reported revenue of $403 million in FY21, up 150 per cent from the prior year and a net loss of $653.1 million.
FuturesThe Dow Jones futures are pointing to a fall of 19 points.
The S&P 500 futures are pointing to a fall of 1 points.
The Nasdaq futures are pointing to a rise of 6 points.
The SPI futures are pointing to a rise of 31 points when the market next opens.
Best and worst performersThe best-performing sector was Information Technology, up 1.9 per cent. The worst-performing sector was Communication Services, down 1.5 per cent.
The best-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was WiseTech Global
(ASX:WTC), closing 28.5 per cent higher at $46.50. It was followed by shares in Appen
(ASX:APX) and HUB24
(ASX:HUB).
The worst-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Reece
(ASX:REH), closing 10.8 per cent lower at $22.30. It was followed by shares in Nine Entertainment
(ASX:NEC) and Seven Group Holdings
(ASX:SVW).
Asian marketsJapan's Nikkei has gained 0.01 per cent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng has lost 0.2 per cent.
China's Shanghai Composite has gained 0.6 per cent.
Commodities and the dollarGold is trading at US$1795.71 an ounce.
Iron ore is 6.9 per cent higher at US$146.13 a ton.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a rise of 1.5 per cent.
Light crude is trading $0.12 lower at US$67.42 a barrel.
One Australian dollar is buying 72.39 US cents.
