Investors sold down stocks anyway. While all four banks dipped in early trading,the Commonwealth Bank and Westpac managed to lift into the green around lunchtime,but were unable to maintain momentum. They closed 0.4 per cent and 0.6 per cent lower. ANZ and NAB shed 1.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.
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Consumer finance provider Latitude Financial remained in a trading halt. In an update to the ASX,the company said it is no longer adding new customers from clients such as Apple,Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi as it tries to contain the hackers which are still active in its computer systems,and are now the subject of an Australian Federal Police investigation.
Thenumber of victims is expected to grow,Latitude warned. The hackers have already stolen the personal information of at least 330,000 finance customers,with 96 per cent of the theft relating to copies of customers’ driver’s licences or driver’s licence numbers,and around 4 per cent relating to passports,it said.
ASX-listed testing company Australian Clinical Labs’ shares initially lifted more than 4 per cent after itlaunched a scrip takeover offer for healthcare business Healius in a move that would create the largest pathology provider in Australia,before closing the session up 2.2 per cent.
The broader market declines come as veteran fund manager Anton Tagliaferro,the founder of Investors Mutual,said there was a “crisis of confidence in the international banking sector”.
“The banking system operates on trust,so when people start getting worried about counterparty risk,it’s a real issue,” Tagliaferro said on the weekend. Counterparty risk exists when there is a concern that the bank you trade with can’t meet its obligations,or is about to go bust.
UBS is paying 3 billion Swiss francs ($4.8 billion) for its rival in an all-share deal that includes extensive government guarantees and liquidity provisions. The price is less than half the 7.4 billion Swiss francs Credit Suisse was worth at the close of trading on Friday.
Looking ahead,US investors this week are focussing on the US Federal Reserve’s two-day policy gathering starting on March 21 (Wednesday AEDT),with all eyes on whether the banking fallout will prompt the world’s most-watched central bank to pause its interest rate hikes.
Tweet of the day
Quote of the day
“I sincerely apologise to our customers and partners for the distress and inconvenience this criminal act has caused. I understand fully the wider concern that this cyberattack has created within the community.” That’s Latitude chief executive Ahmed Fahour,who retires at the end of this month,apologising for thedisruption caused by the hacking incident.
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Sydney Airport’s chief executive,Geoff Culbert,hasblamed reduced capacity and high airfares for stagnant domestic passenger recovery. Domestic passenger traffic through Sydney continues to hover at just over 80 per cent on pre-pandemic figures.
The cheapest airfares this month are about 5 per cent more expensive than the same period last year.
with Bloomberg
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