Australian stocks are moving up today following a positive US session overnight ahead of US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech in Wyoming later this week.
The S&P/ASX 200 rose 36.80 points, or 0.46%, to 8,017.20 points at 10:21am AEST.
Nine of the 11 sectors are higher over the last week, along with the S&P/ASX 200 Index.
Information technology is today’s (20 August) best performing sector, gaining 3.97%. While the energy sector was up just shy of 1%, materials was in the red with a dip of 1.56%.
Earnings season continues, with engineering group Monadelphous (ASX:MND) releasing its results today.
The company – which provides construction, maintenance and industrial services to the resources, energy and infrastructure sectors – booked $2.03 billion in revenue for FY24, which is 11% higher than the previous financial year.
Net profit after tax climbed 16.2% to $62.2 million and Monadelphous declared a final dividend of $0.33 per share fully franked, taking the full year dividend to $0.58 per share.
Aluminium producer Alcoa Corporation (ASX:AAI) and mining giant BHP (ASX:BHP) were among the early top movers today with gains of 4.02% and 1.11% respectively.
The bottom performing stocks included energy retailer AGL Energy (ASX:AGL) and oil and gas producer Beach Energy (ASX:BPT), which edged back 0.50% and 0.38% respectively.
Over the last five days, the index has gained 2.31% and is currently 1.73% off of its 52-week high.
BHP last week reached a wage deal with workers at its Escondida Copper Mine in Chile, bringing to an end strike action at the operation.
The diversified miner has agreed to pay workers a $32,000 bonus and an additional $2,000 in “soft” loans.
A soft loan is financing with no interest or a below-market rate of interest and lenient terms that is often offered in developing countries.
The S&P/ASX200 is Australia’s leading share market index and contains the top 200 ASX-listed companies in terms of market capitalisation, and accounts for about 80% of the country’s equity market. The index is designed to measure the performance of the 200 largest index-eligible stocks listed on the ASX by float-adjusted market capitalisation
It is recognised as the institutional investable benchmark in the country.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: ASX and Monadelphous
