Loading

Managing Director Graham Turner informed shareholders that the company had started the new fiscal year with “solid momentum” with the industry benefitting from the easing of covid restrictions; however, he admitted that travel was still at a relatively early stage of recovery.

All four big banks were down at end of trading, with ANZ the hardest hit, dropping 1.5 per cent. However, overall, the big four banks have chalked up a combined full-year cash earnings of $28.5 billion, their highest combined profits since 2018, despite fears of economic instability.

Medibank also took a tumble as the hacking scandal continues to wreak havoc on the health insurance provider. The hackers, who accessed the records of 9.7 million Medibank Private customers, claimed to have released another cache of sensitive data on Monday morning ahead of the company’s AGM on Wednesday. Medibank’s share price closed 1.41 per cent lower at $2.80.

The “shining light” in the market today was energy and mining stocks, which senior investment adviser at Shaw and Partners, Adam Dawes, said was largely due to reports of restrictions easing in China.

“Energy and materials were really the shining light in our market, where we have seen most of the other stocks starting to pull back a bit from where they are. But certainly Fortescue was one of the bigger movers because of iron ore moving higher,” Dawes said.

On Wall Street on Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.9 per cent a day after soaring 5.5 per cent for its best day in more than two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 32 points to its surge of more than 1,200 from a day earlier, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.9 per cent.

Hopes for more growth from China helped not only stocks but also oil prices, with US crude gaining 2.9 per cent to $US88.96 per barrel.

The main reason for this week’s euphoria in markets was a report on Thursday showing inflation in the United States slowed by more than expected last month. That raised hopes the worst of inflation may have passed and the Federal Reserve can be less aggressive about raising interest rates to get it under control, though analysts cautioned high inflation could be slow to fall and some called Wall Street’s big rally overdone.

In the crypto market, prices sank again amid the industry’s latest crisis of confidence. One of the bigger trading platforms, FTX, filed for bankruptcy protection after its users began scrambling to pull out their money on fears about its financial strength.

Tweet of the day:

Quote of the day:“Anyone who downloads this data from the dark web, which is more complicated than searching for information in a public internet forum and attempts to profit from it is committing a crime,” said Medibank chief executive David Koczkar.

You may have missed: Cbus, the $70 billion superannuation fund which represents about 850,000 members mostly in blue-collar work, wants the federal government to overhaul a key pillar of reforms introduced last year which “staple” members to their first fund, voicing concerns for young workers in dangerous jobs.