ASX 200 LIVE: Shares rally; Whitehaven Coal given legal nod for Narrabri; NewsCorp to sell Foxtel; QBE posts $1.2b profit; Life360 ups guidance; Nick Scali profit slides.
Pinned post – 4.24PM – Aug 9, 2024 Australian shares rallied 1.3 per cent on Friday in broad gains after upbeat data soothed fears that the US economy was facing a recession, ending a brutal week for global markets on a positive note. All 11 sectors rose, with tech vaulting a whopping 3.1 per cent as family tracking app Life360 hit an intraday record high after upgrading full-year revenue guidance and revealing global expansion plans. The company has had a strong start to the first half, achieving an all-time quarterly record of new circles added, while increasing its paying member base by 132,000 users,” said Michael Higgins, portfolio manager at Milford. News Corp, the publishing and broadcast giant controlled by the Murdoch family, was also among the top gainers on news it planned to put its majority-owned Australian pay television platform Foxtel up for sale. Overall, the benchmark S & P/ASX 200 Index closed 95.7 points higher at 7777.7, following a 0.2 per cent fall on Thursday. Yet, on the week it was down 2 per cent, the biggest such loss since mid-April. Rio Tinto jumped 2 per cent to $116.47, BHP added 1.6 per cent to $40.86 and Fortescue gained 2.2 per cent to $18.49. The benchmark September iron ore futures contract climbed 2.8 per cent to $US102.25 per tonne in early trade in Singapore. The big four banks climbed, with ANZ up 1.1 per cent to $27.96. It was a tough session for insurance group QBE, which was among the biggest laggards after investors shrugged off a strong gain in earnings to focus on a small miss in net profit and guidance than analysts had anticipated. Stock trimmed early losses but still closed 1.7 per cent lower to $16.05. Real estate giant REA Group surged 6.8 per cent to $202.36 after profit and dividend rose in the full-year ending in June thanks to higher home listings. Furniture retailer Nick Scali reversed early losses to end the session 0.1 per cent up at $14.84 despite recording a big slump in full-year profit as shoppers retrained spending. It ended the week up 1.3 per cent, the highest such advance since April. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: http://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/asx-to-rise-20240809-p5k0yd