K64 Auxiliary Finance and Insurance Services

It’s a long way to the top for a market in reach of record high

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Original article by Andrew White, Eli Greenblat
The Australian – Page: 17 & 28 : 30-Jul-19

The S&P/ASX 200 closed less than three points shy of its all-time record on 29 July, but the upcoming corporate earnings season may see the benchmark index reach a new high. The S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 surpassed their 2007 peaks in 2013, while the Nikkei did so in 2015. Alphinity Investment Management’s Bruce Smith has downplayed the significance of the ASX 200’s rise, noting that the S&P ASX All Ordinaries Accumulation Index also rose above its 2007 levels in 2013 and has since consistently reached new highs.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, STANDARD AND POOR’S 500 INDEX, FTSE 100 INDEX, NIKKEI 225 INDEX, STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX ALL ORDINARIES ACCUMULATION INDEX, ALPHINITY INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, WILSON ASSET MANAGEMENT, OPHIR ASSET MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Tough time for IPOs as investors fall quiet

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Original article by Samantha Bailey
The Australian – Page: 25 : 24-Jul-19

HLB Mann Judd’s latest IPO Watch report shows that 23 companies listed on the Australian sharemarket in the first half of 2019, compared with 39 during the same period in 2018. Meanwhile, just $823m was raised via IPOs during the first half, down from $2.5bn in the previous corresponding period. Marcus Ohm of HLB does not expect IPO activity to improve during the September quarter, while he says the outlook for the final quarter of 2019 may depend on how the sharemarket performs. At present, just eight companies are seeking to list in the second half of 2019.

CORPORATES
HLB MANN JUDD, STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX

Little room for error as reporting season nears

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Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 25 : 24-Jul-19

The consensus forecast is for S&P/ASX 200 companies outside of the resources sector to post earnings per share growth of one per cent for 2018-19. Morgans Financial expects the August 2019 reporting season to generally exceed expectations, due primarily to the fact that earnings forecasts have been downgraded so much. Andrew Tang of Morgans favours stocks such as BHP, Rio Tinto, Telstra and A2 Milk. He says Suncorp, Spark Infrastructure, Computershare and REA Group are among the stocks whose 2018-19 earnings and future guidance may disappoint the market.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, MORGANS FINANCIAL LIMITED, BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS, THE A2 MILK COMPANY LIMITED – ASX A2M, SUNCORP GROUP LIMITED – ASX SUN, SPARK INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP – ASX SKI, REA GROUP LIMITED – ASX REA, MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX ALL ORDINARIES INDEX

Australian workers not saving enough to handle a job loss

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Original article by Killian Plastow
The New Daily – Page: Online : 11-Jul-19

Research by Finder shows that 5.9 million Australian workers have insufficient savings to support themselves for more than a month if they lost their job. The survey also found that 2.1 million Australians would be unable to financially support themselves for more than a week. Separate research by Roy Morgan shows that Australians have an average of six months’ worth of savings, although the median is about 0.8 months, or 24 days. CEO Michele Levine says people on low incomes would be hardest hit by a sudden job loss, as they are less likely to have savings.

CORPORATES
FINDER.COM.AU, ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION

Rate cuts push investors into risky territory

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Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 25 : 10-Jul-19

Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 recorded its third-biggest loss for 2019 on 8 July, after gaining two per cent in the previous week and about 25 per cent in the last six months. The rally in global sharemarkets during 2019 has been driven by central banks’ shift towards a monetary policy easing bias. The downturn in official interest rates is prompting more investors to embrace higher-risk asset classes, which in turn can increase market risk.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, JP MORGAN AND COMPANY INCORPORATED, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD

Morgan Stanley puts cat among the pigeons

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Original article by David Rogers
The Australian – Page: 28 : 9-Jul-19

The S&P/ASX 200 recorded its third-biggest daily loss for 2019 on 8 July, after gaining two per cent in the previous week. Morgan Stanley’s move to downgrade its equity market recommendation from ‘equalweight’ to ‘underweight’ contributed to the pullback, and Andrew Sheets of Morgan Stanley says the investment bank’s global equity weight is now at its lowest since coverage began in 2014. Meanwhile, with the US earnings season set to begin shortly, Tobias Levkovich of Citigroup says consensus estimates for earnings in the June quarter could be too low.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, MORGAN STANLEY AND COMPANY INCORPORATED, CITIGROUP INCORPORATED, STANDARD AND POOR’S 500 INDEX, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

Morgans knew of problems at branch

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Original article by Liam Walsh
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 & 20 : 5-Jul-19

Stockbroker Morgans is the subject of dozens of law suits from clients; over 20 of them are targeting Morgans and David Wilkins, the former head of its branch at Springwood in Queensland. Some clients of Morgans have claimed that they lost hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of advice they received from Morgans’ Springwood office. An email sent in 2009 that is contained in one of the lawsuits against Morgans indicates that its senior management were aware that there were problems at the office, but the fir did not advise clients about its concerns.

CORPORATES
MORGANS FINANCIAL LIMITED, SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION

Shares near all-time high as rates fall

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Original article by Melissa Yeo
The Australian – Page: 21 & 29 : 5-Jul-19

The S&P/ASX 200 reached a new 12-year high during intra-day trading on 4 July, and the benchmark index is now just 133 points shy of its record high of October 2007. George Kanaan of UBS says the fall in bond yields has been the key driver for local and international shares in 2019. The federal government’s income tax cuts package has also boosted sentiment among Australian investors; Plato Investment Management’s MD Don Hamson says the tax cuts could have the same stimulatory impact as two reductions in the cash rate.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S ASX 200 INDEX, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD, PLATO INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LIMITED, PEPPERSTONE GROUP LIMITED, EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE INDEX, KPMG AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA

Facebook digital currency to challenge the banks

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Original article by James Eyers
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 20 : 19-Jun-19

Social media giant Facebook has outlined plans to directly compete with financial services providers such as banks and the online payments sector. It aims to offer digital wallet and cryptocurrency products in the first half of 2020. Facebook is a founding member of the Libra Association, which will manage the Libra cryptocurrency, while its digital wallet will be called Calibra. Facebook’s plans can be expected to attract close scrutiny from Australian and international regulators, given the company’s data breach scandal in 2018.

CORPORATES
FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, LIBRA ASSOCIATION, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, ANDREESSEN HOROWITZ, UNION SQUARE VENTURES, RIBBIT CAPITAL, ALIPAY, TENCENT HOLDINGS LIMITED, AFTERPAY TOUCH GROUP LIMITED – ASX APT, ZIP CO LIMITED – ASX Z1P, APPLE INCORPORATED, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, OFX GROUP LIMITED – ASX OFX, TRANSFERWISE, MASTERCARD INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATED, VISA INTERNATIONAL, PAYPAL INCORPORATED, EBAY INCORPORATED, UBER TECHNOLOGIES INCORPORATED, SPOTIFY LIMITED, VODAFONE GROUP PLC, INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND

Rate cut may lead to riskier investing

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Original article by Sarah Turner
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 31 : 13-Jun-19

Anthony Doyle of Fidelity International says Australian savers are likely to seek out higher-yielding and higher-risk investments following the Reserve Bank’s decision to reduce the cash rate to a new low of 1.25 per cent. He notes that there was a similar trend in the UK following the global financial crisis, with Britain’s cash rate reaching a low of just 25 basis points. Doyle also expects the search for yield to bolster Australia’s corporate bond market.

CORPORATES
FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL PTY LTD, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, M&G INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT LIMITED