ASX rises as banks and miners jump, while Wesfarmers falls

The Australian sharemarket closed in the green on Thursday, as the big miners and resources companies buoyed the market on a bumper day for the reporting season.

The S&P/ASX 200 rose 79.20 or 0.9 per cent to 9086.20, as the bourse hit a new intraday record during the session. Eight of the market’s 11 sectors rose, led by the energy sector, while banks and miners also had a solid day.

The increase came as new figures showed unemployment was steady to start the year at 4.1 per cent despite a solid increase in the total number of Australians with a full-time job. The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday morning said the country created more than 50,500 full-time jobs in January. This was offset by a near-33,000 drop in the number of part-time workers.

Amid a flurry of corporate results, Telstra rose 3.6 per cent as it reported a $1.2 billion half-year profit, up 8.1 per cent. The telco giant is reaping the rewards of aggressive cost-cutting that has shed more than 2300 jobs in six months, while it also warned consumers may face higher mobile bills over a $7.2 billion government spectrum charge.

Retail giant Wesfarmers slumped 5.6 per cent after missing expectations as the Bunnings and Kmart operator unveiled a 3.1 per cent rise in sales to $24.2 billion and a 9.1 per cent rise in profit to $1.6 billion in the first half.

Bunnings’ sales grew 4 per cent to nearly $10.7 billion over the six-month period, while Kmart Group’s revenue gained 3.2 per cent to $6.4 billion. Target, which is part of the Kmart Group, was a drag on the result, with lower-than-expected clothing sales. Coles Group and Woolworths each lost 0.1 per cent in early trade.

Medibank lost 5.6 per cent after reporting an 11 per cent fall in half-year net profit.

Financials gained, with Commonwealth Bank jumping 0.7 per cent, National Australia Bank rising 2.4 per cent, Westpac gaining 2.7 per cent and ANZ Group rising 2.1 per cent.

Zip shares plunged 34 per cent after its first-half results showed its revenue margin had narrowed in the half, while net bad debts had risen from 1.6 per cent of total transactions to 1.7 per cent. Cash earnings before tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 85.6 per cent to $124.3 million.

Mining stocks had a strong day, with BHP up 1.8 per cent, Rio Tinto up 2 per cent and Fortescue up 0.7 per cent. Late on Thursday, Rio reported a $14.1 billion full-year profit after boosting its output of key commodities, copper and iron ore, from its Pilbara operations.

Gold players also advanced with Northern Star adding 1.2 per cent and Evolution Mining rising 2.4 per cent. Silver major South32 edged up 0.5 per cent.

Energy was the best performing sector after a jump in oil prices, as traders weighed whether talks between the US and Iran will be enough to avert conflict, following a report that American military intervention could come sooner than expected. Woodside Energy jumped 4.5 per cent and Santos surged 5.6 per cent.

The Australian dollar was trading at US70.55¢ at 5.22pm AEDT.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.6 per cent and pulled a bit closer to its all-time high, set late last month. The Dow Jones added 129 points, or 0.3 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.8 per cent.

Nvidia helped lift the market and climbed 1.6 per cent after Meta Platforms announced a long-term partnership in which it will use millions of chips and other equipment from Nvidia for its artificial-intelligence data centres.

“No one deploys AI at Meta’s scale,” Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said. Because his company is the most valuable on Wall Street, Nvidia’s stock was the single most powerful force pulling the S&P 500 higher.

That performance demonstrated the upside of AI development for the US sharemarket. But investors have also focused on the potential downsides recently, which has led to sharp swings for Wall Street. Worries are rising, for example, about how much companies such as Meta are spending on AI and whether they can make back their huge investments through higher profits and productivity in the future.

Meta’s shares fell as much as 1.7 per cent before recovering and rising 0.6 per cent.

Outside of earnings reports, Moderna jumped 6.1 per cent after saying regulators at the Food and Drug Administration will review its flu vaccine candidate after earlier refusing to consider it.

With AP, Bloomberg, AAP

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