ASX declines as CBA and AGL shares slump; Miners, Tyro advance
The numbers
The Australian sharemarket declined on Wednesday, ignoring fresh records on Wall Street overnight after the rally in the nation's largest bank ran out of steam and shares of the biggest power generator slumped following both companies' results.
The S&P/ASX 200 dropped 53.7 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 8817.10 points, led lower by financial stocks and utilities. The ASX had added 0.4 per cent in the previous session as the Reserve Bank cut interest rates. The Australian dollar was up 0.1 per cent at US65.35¢ at the time of the sharemarket close.
The lifters
The big mining companies all finished higher on the back of a rise in iron price overnight. BHP gained 1.1 per cent, Fortescue Metals rose 1.4 per cent and Rio Tinto added 1 per cent.
Meanwhile, gold miner Evolution climbed 3.9 per cent, having jumped as much as 7 per cent during the session, after saying its profit for the year to June 30 more than doubled to $926 million amid rising bullion prices. Fellow gold miner Northern Star Resources gained 1.1 per cent.
Penfolds maker Treasury Wine Estates rose 1.2 per cent after revealing a 15.5 per cent lift in underlying profits to $470.6 million, having sold more than $2.9 billion worth of wine over the past financial year. The result was helped by Asian demand for its luxury red wine, and price increases.
Tyro Payments jumped 11.5 per cent after telling investors it had received unsolicited and non-binding takeover bids from separate suitors, although so far none of them had been at a level that it considered 'representative of Tyro's intrinsic value'.
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