ASX hits another intraday record as Origin, Westpac soar; Telstra slumps
The numbers
The Australian sharemarket closed in the green on Thursday, setting a new intraday record high as utilities and banking stocks buoyed the bourse. While Westpac soared, Commonwealth Bank endured another poor session.
The S&P/ASX 200 rose to 8899.1 before closing the session 46.7 points, or 0.5 per cent, higher to 8,873.8 points, with eight of 11 industry sectors finishing in the green.
The lifters
The utilities sector led gains with a 3.5 per cent lift. This was driven by Origin Energy which finished 6.3 per cent higher after reporting strong gains from its LNG business in its full-year results, and predicting stronger-than-expected earnings growth for the year ahead from its industry-leading domestic power generation and energy retailing business.
AGL closed 2.1 per cent higher and Meridian Energy rose 0.8 per cent.
Westpac shares gained 6.3 per cent after the bank reported $1.9 billion in quarterly profits, helped by improved margins and fewer customers falling behind on their loan repayments.
The country's second-largest bank on Thursday said its unaudited profits for the June quarter were 14 per cent higher than the quarterly average during the first six months of the bank's financial year. Among the rest of the big four banks, NAB rose 1.9 per cent and ANZ added 2 per cent.
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Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. X Learn More Loaded : 37.82% 0:00 00:00 / 00:00 Close Modal Dialog This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button. 00:26 SUBSCRIBER ONLY Chinese tech to change EVs China's... more CATL could put electric cars in top gear, as David McCowen reports. 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