ASX rises for ninth-straight session to record longest winning streak since December 2015 — as it happened (2024)

• ASX 200: +0.2% to 8,010 points (final figures below)
• Australian dollar: steady at 67.40 US cents
• Wall Street: Dow Jones (-0.2%), S&P 500 (-0.2%), Nasdaq (-0.3%)
• Europe: FTSE (-1%), DAX (-0.4%), Stoxx 600 (-0.5%)
• Spot gold:steady at $US2,514/ounce
• Oil (Brent crude): -0.2% at $US77.06/barrel
• Iron ore: +1.6% to $US96.10/tonne
• Bitcoin: +0.5% to$US59,617

Prices current around 4:20pm AEST.

Updates on the major ASX indices:

Thanks for following along throughout the day — but if you want more business and finance news, you're in luck.

Here's what's coming up tonight on The Business:

• Kirsten Aiken sits down with the boss of IAG, Nick Hawkins, to discuss the company's 79% jump in insurance profit;
• Emilia Terzon explores the true cost of free online deliveries and returns, and why consumers will be paying more; and
• Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher joins the show after the oil and gas company reported a 19% drop in its half-year net profit amid recent takeover rumors

You can catch The Business on ABC News at 8:45pm, after the late news on ABC TV, and anytime on ABC iview.

We'll be back to do it all again tomorrow — see you then!

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The CEO of St Vincent's has described its new funding agreement with private health insurer nib as "fair and mutually satisfactory".

Earlier this afternoon the health insurer and not-for-profit health and aged care services provider confirmed that they had signed a new contract after negotiations broke down at the start of July.

In a statement, St Vincent's CEO Chris Blake welcomed the deal and said it was the best outcome for both parties.

"Exiting our agreement with nib was never the outcome St Vincent's wanted," he said.

"Times have never been harder for private hospital providers in Australia. As a not-for-profit social enterprise, St Vincent's needs to be able to cover its costs.

"I'm very glad both parties have been able to use the notice period to dig a little deeper and reach a fair and mutually satisfactory agreement."

Neither St Vincent's or nib have shared details of the new funding agreement as they're commercial-in-confidence, however Mr Blake added that the deal meant the health provider was able to cover its costs.

Having notched up its longest winning streak since December 2015, the rise on the ASX 200 today was largely driven by a rise in tech and mining stocks — and their strong performance made up for losses in the energy sector.

Tech stocks rose by 5.3% — their record high level — with WiseTech Global's strong results leading the charge.

The rise in iron ore prices also sent miners higher, notably BHP and Rio Tinto, who gained 1.6% and 1.3%.

Energy stocks meanwhile slipped by 1.9%, due to a fall in the oil price and Santos posting a bigger-than-expected fall in its profit.

Here's the top five performing stocks for the day:

• WiseTech Global +18.4%
• Charter Hall +15.8%
• Healius +12.9%
• Brambles +9.3%
• Lynas Rare Earths +7.4%

As for the bottom performing stocks:

• Ventia Services -6.7%
• Santos -4.3%
• Helia Group -3.9%
• AUB -3.7%
• Goodman Group -3.6%

The ASX 200 has defied speculation that it would snap its losing streak today by notching up a ninth-straight gain at the close.

The local market ended up 0.2% higher to close above 8,000 points — settling at 8,010 points, to be exact.

This morning, futures were pointing to the eight-day winning streak coming to an end by the end of today, and trade was lower for much of the day.

But after recovering throughout the day, the ASX 200 has hit its longest winning streak since December 2015.

Not bad, given just two weeks ago the ASX took a dive...

That's certainly what IAG's chief executive Nick Hawkins has cautiously flagged for some insurance premiums.

IAG is Australia's largest insurance company, and Mr Hawkins says that bill shock for motor insurance premiums could begin to fade as inflation slows.

However, he's told the ABC's senior business correspondent Peter Ryan that property insurance bills will remain high.

You can listen to the full interview below:

Australia's largest not-for-profit health and aged care provider St Vincent's has reached a contract agreement with private health insurer nib — less than two months after negotiations broke down.

St Vincent's announced plans to end its contract with the health insurer at the start of July, which would mean nib patients looking to be treated at one of its 10 private hospitals across New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria may need to pay more for some services.

The ABC understands that tensions boiled over in July in relation to how much nib was willing to pay St Vincent's to treat its policyholders.

In a statement, Honeysuckle Health — a health service contracting group operating on behalf of nib — said both parties have reached an agreement, with the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman providing assistance.

"We are pleased to have reached agreement for nib and St Vincent's, providing certainty and continuity of cover for nib members," Honeysuckle Health boss Rhod McKensey said.

Mr McKensey added that revised funding agreement "recognises the balance between hospital viability and premium price containment".

The agreement also means that nib members will have their out-of-pocket costs limited when being treated at St Vincent's facilities.

Both parties were given 65 days to reach an agreement after St Vincent's said it intended to end its contract on July 4.

You can read more about what led to the initial dispute below:

With speculation that the Bank of Queensland is set to cut up to 600 jobs, representatives from the Finance Sector Union are meeting with the bank shortly to "demand answers".

Overnight, The Australian reported that the Bank of Queensland would axe 600 jobs as part of its merger with ME Bank, however the bank is yet to confirm these job losses.

National secretary with the FSU, Julia Angrisano, says Bank of Queensland staff are "anxiously awaiting news" about their jobs.

"BOQ need to come clean on their plans. Workers have been asking for greater transparency on their plans as recently as June," she said.

"When asked about the Bank's announcement that a further 400 jobs would be cut, BOQ said this would be through natural attrition and provided no further details.

"Workers are walking around feeling that they have a target on their backs, waiting for the axe to fall."

The Bank of Queensland has already axed 250 jobs as part of its market pledge to deliver $200 million in productivity by 2026.

The FSU and BOQ will meet at 2:30pm.

The ASX 200 is trading lower as we head into the afternoon, down 0.4% to 7,965 points as of 12:35pm AEST.

(There's live figures for the main indices at the top of the blog.)

Although local shares are down, it's certainly not the case across the board — the technology sector is doing its best to challenge that negativity, up 3.1%, with basic materials and consumer staples also higher (up 0.6% and 0.1% respectively).

That said, energy stocks are dragging things down in a big way — it's down 3%, with education and industrials shedding 1.2% so far.

As for top performers, it's WiseTech Global's world and we're just living in it, with the logistics software maker hitting an all-time high off the back of its financial reports out earlier today.

Not only did its underlying profit beat expectations, it's also forecasting strong results for the current financial year — and that sent its share price soaring by as much as 21.8% to $114.99 today.

Things have settled down a bit now, but it is still leading the pack as far as the main movers are concerned:

• WiseTech Global +16.5%
• Charter Hall +13.4%
• Healius +11.9%
• Brambles +9.6%
• Lynas Rare Earths +7.1%

As for the bottom five:

• Corporate Travel Management -7.8%
• AUB Group -6.2%
• Helia Group -5.7%
• Santos -4.9%
• Whitehaven Coal -4.8%

Echo Law, which commenced the class action against the airline, is the same law firm that launched a separate class action against Qantas in 2023 over that airline's COVID credits program, which is ongoing.

If you're looking for more detail on the story, my colleagues Daniel Ziffer and Gareth Hutchens have you covered.

As we flagged earlier, a class action against Jetstar on behalf of hundreds of thousands of customers whose flights were cancelled during the COVID pandemic has been lodged in the Federal Court this morning.

The claim alleges Jetstar failed to refund money that customers had paid for flights, despite being legally obliged to do so.

Andrew Paull, a partner at law firm Echo Law, alleged that, like Qantas, Jetstar breached the law by failing to be transparent and by failing to refund its customers.

Jetstar has responded by saying they will review the claims made in the class action.

"Last year we removed expiry dates for COVID vouchers so they can be used indefinitely," an airline spokesperson said.

"These vouchers are also multi use, meaning they can be used across multiple bookings and for multiple people."

Shares in Santos have fallen as much as 3.3% in early trade after it reported an 18% drop in half-year underlying profit to $US654 million.

The oil and gas producer's results missed the average analyst estimate.

It appears to have been hurt by weaker realised prices and a decline in production and sales volume amid poor demand from top consumer China.

The company reported:

• Sales revenue of $US2.7 billion (down 9%)
• Free cash flow from operations US$1.1 billion (down 5%)

Managing director and chief executive Kevin Gallagher said the company remains "focused on delivering our major growth projects".

Its guidance for 2024 remains unchanged.

A lot of companies have announced their earnings this morning.

Let's start with the ones that have seen a big drop in their share price (because their results weren't as good as expected).

Santosreported an 18% drop in half-year underlying profit to $US654 million.

Domino’s Pizza's annual profit jumped 136.5% to $96 million, and increased its final dividend. However, its same-store sales in the first few weeks of the 2024-25 financial year were down 1.3%.

Fletcher Buildingposted a full-year loss of $227 million. It was a huge downgrade compared to the previous year's $235 million profit due to slowing demand, inflation and competitive pressures.

Corporate Travel Management reported its annual revenue went up 9%, while its underlying profit jumped 22.5% to $113.3 million (but investors were expecting more).

AUB Groupreported its underlying full-year profit jumped 32.5% to $171 million (but that wasn't good enough for markets).

On the flip side, not many stocks are doing well today.

Only a quarter of the companies on the ASX 200 are trading higher.

Some of them include WiseTech Global (+13.9%), Charter Hall (+12.2%), Brambles (+9%) and Breville (+7.2%), after they reported financial results which generally beat analysts' estimates.

Most stocks are trading lower today on the ASX.

Today's worst performers include Corporate Travel Management (-7.8%), Domino's Pizza (-5%), AUB Group (-5.5%) and Fletcher Building (-4.2%) after they reported financial results which fell below market expectations.

Hi team, just jumping in with some news.

A class action against Jetstar on behalf of potentially hundreds of thousands of customers whose flights were cancelled during the COVID pandemic has been lodged in Federal Court.

The claim alleges Jetstar failed to refund money customers had paid for flights, despite being legally obliged to do so.

“Jetstar promotes itself as a values-driven, low fare airline committed to helping ‘more people fly, more often’, yet it’s a highly profitable part of the Qantas Group, and when COVID caused widespread flight cancellations it put those profits ahead of its customers’ interests”, says Andrew Paull, a partner at Echo Law.

“Jetstar customers were pushed into holding hundreds of millions of dollars in restricted travel credits, even though this wasn’t what those customers had agreed to as part of the airline’s terms and conditions. The right thing for Jetstar to do when it cancelled all those flights was to return its customers’ money without delay.”

Sound familiar? You're right.

The same firm began a separate class action against Qantas in 2023 over its COVID credits program. That action is ongoing.

Both class actions seek refunds and compensation for customers.

"It held onto ordinary Australian’s money and expected customers to just be happy with credits, which we allege it was not entitled to do. It now needs to be held accountable and refund that money with interest.”

The firm allegesmany Jetstar customers ended up paying more than their original booking to use their credits on new fares, as they were led to believe they had little choice but to do that or else lose the value of the flights they paid for.

The local share market has started its day slightly lower, following a pullback on Wall Street overnight.

The ASX 200 index was down 0.4% to 7,965 points by 10:25am AEST.

The Australian dollar was a little higher at 67.5 US cents, largely due to a weaker greenback.

Gold hit a new record high overnight (at $US2,361.50 an ounce), but has since retreated from that level.

Prices current around 10:30am AEST

Do you need a refresher on how markets performed yesterday (ahead of this morning's drop)?

If so, you're in luck! Here's Alan Kohler's finance report from last night's 7pm News bulletins:

With the US presidential race now looking "neck and neck", greater attention is being paid to the economic policies of the Democrats' candidate,Kamala Harris.

Ms Harris is trying to distinguish herself from Republican candidate Donald Trump with big spending social programs and a controversial pledge to raise the US corporate tax rate.

For more, you can listen to the our senior business correspondent Peter Ryan's latest report: