Omni Pop Magazine: AUSTRALIAN STOCKS SLIP: Here’s what you need to know

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

AUSTRALIAN STOCKS SLIP: Here’s what you need to know

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Australian shares closed lower.

Today’s scoreboard:

ASX 200: 5,744.20 -28.17 -0.49%
All Ordinaries: 5,794.50 -26.13 -0.45%
AUD/USD: 0.7964 -0.0005 -0.06%

The local market slipped after two days of gaining ground, with financial stocks and miners leading the way down.

Westpac was down almost 1% to $31.76 and BHP 1.5% to $25.75.

Medical device maker ResMed dropped 5.7% to $9.105 after reporting a 7% increase in revenue to $US556.7 million for the fourth quarter.

Education group, Navitas (NVT) was down 3.3% to $4.32 after posting a 10.8% fall in full year profit to $80.3 million.

Top stories:

1. The impact of the rising dollar. These stocks are feeling it.

2. A huge increase in building approvals. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, total approvals surged by 10.9% to 18,453 in June in seasonally adjusted terms, breezing past expectations for an increase of 1%.

3. Cost of living pressures are not as bad as many believe. The Australian Bureau of Statistics Selected Living Cost Index report has a story to tell.

4. Genworth’s profits drop by a third. Its shares jumped on a buyback by almost 6% to close at $3.20.

5. Cash burn rate. Contango Asset Management gets pinged by the ASX.

6. Webjet is about to announce an acquisition. Webjet has gone into a trading halt pending an announcement and a capital raising to fund it.

7. Former Pandora boss Jane Huxley is Spotify’s new Australian MD. She replaces the streaming service’s inaugural local MD, Kate Vale, who left in May.

8. Here’s what Chinese online shoppers like to buy from Australia. They also like the sound of the lifestyle in Australia.