Aust shares up modestly, set for flat finish for week

Derek Rose | November 24, 2023

The local share market is up modestly this morning, putting it on track for a basically flat finish for the week.

At noon AEDT on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was up 24.9 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 7,054.1, while the broader All Ordinaries was up 23 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 7,257.2.

Since last Friday’s close the ASX200 was up 5.9 points, or 0.08 per cent, with US markets offline overnight for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Nine of the ASX’s 11 sectors were up at midday, with utilities the biggest mover, gaining 1.7 per cent, bolstered by Origin Energy. The energy retailer had gained 2.5 per cent to $8.53 as its board considered a new takeover bid by a Brookfield-led consortium.

All of the Big Four banks were higher, with CBA gaining 0.9 per cent, Westpac adding 0.5 per cent, ANZ advancing 0.3 per cent and NAB climbing 0.2 per cent.

In the heavyweight mining sector, BHP was basically flat, while Rio Tinto had gained 0.5 per cent and Fortescue added 0.4 per cent as it announced its name change had been completed.

From Tuesday, Andrew Forrest’s company will officially be known as Fortescue Ltd, rather than Fortescue Metals Group, reflecting its operations as an integrated green technology, energy and metals company.

There were a number of other corporate announcements as annual general meeting season wound down.

Wisetech Global was down 3.3 per cent to $64 as chief executive Richard White told shareholders at the logistic platform’s annual general meeting that its 2023/24 outlook faced a tailwind from recent weakness in the Australian dollar and two small acquisitions.

Current Wisetech chairman Andrew Harrison also announced he would retire in March. He’ll be replaced by director Richard Dammery. 

Whitehaven Coal was up 2.4 per cent to $7.21 as the Queensland government’s coordinator general recommended that Whitehaven’s Winchester South coking coal project southwest of Moranbah proceed, subject to conditions.

Whitehaven called the recommendation an important milestone for the coalminer, the people of Queensland and for the trading partners who rely on Australia’s metallurgical coal for steelmaking. 

Select Harvests had fallen 6.2 per cent to $4.10 as the nut grower announced it incurred a $114.7 million loss for the 12 months ended September 30, compared to a $4.8 million profit the year before.

Fiscal 2023 was challenging operationally, Select Harvest said, with the third year of a La Nina weather pattern causing cooler and weather conditions that meant nearly all growing regions produced volumes well below previous averages. Global almond prices are also down.

Adairs was up 0.7 per cent to $1.475 despite the bedding and homeware retailer announcing that sales had been down nine per cent for the first 21 weeks of 2023/24.

“The impact of higher interest rates and cost of living pressures has seen a significant decline in traffic across each of our businesses of (circa 10 per cent) over the same period last year,” Adairs said.

The Australian dollar was buying 65.51 US cents, from 65.55US cents at Wednesday’s ASX close.