Welcome to your five-minute update of the trading day,and how the experts saw it.
The numbers:The Australian sharemarket closed weaker on Wednesday,shedding 11.50 points,or 0.16 per cent,to 6986.80. The ASX 200 added 0.6 per cent through August,held up by mostly strong company earnings reports.
Energy and materials stocks provided a significant drag on the market on Wednesday,with heavyweights Woodside Energy,Santos,BHP and Fortescue all finishing lower.
The lifters: Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals jumped 16.1 per cent after reporting its sixth consecutive annual profit;Webjet gained 7.63 per cent after predicting its operational cash surplus will exceed $100 million by September;and Tyro payments finished 10.1 per cent higher after Monday’s strong earnings report.
The laggards: Pointsbet was down 11.85 per cent after reporting a full-year loss;Woodside Energy fell 4.4 per cent despite reporting five-fold increase in profit on Tuesday;and MinRes finished 5.62 per cent lower on another tough day for miners.
The lowdown:Despite finishing modestly lower,the Australian sharemarket bounced back enough from a dip in early morning trade to finish the August results season in positive territory.
Financial and communications stocks led the recovery from losses earlier in the morning and finished in the black,but energy and material stocks weighed heavily on the market.
Blue chips Rio Tinto,BHP and Fortescue all lost value after Chinese iron ore prices sunk below $100 per tonne over renewed worries about China’s faltering steel industry.
Webjet shares finished 8 per cent higher in early trade after.