Australian share market fell again on Thursday, with eight sectors in the red

The Australian share market has finished flat again on Thursday, thanks in part to a weak lead from Wall St, with the energy and consumer sectors being the biggest drags locally. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 closed lower, losing 26.3 points or 0.33 per cent to finish the day on 8045.1 points. The broader All Ordinaries was flat, dropping 0.3 per cent to 8263.6. The Australian dollar was up slightly, at US68.05 cents. Only three of the 11 sectors finished in the green, while the energy, consumer discretionary and consumer staples topped the red list. Wall St was hit by chipmaker Nvidia’s drop after it disappointed the market after hours despite announcing revenues of $30bn for the second quarter, beating the expected $28.7bn. Locally, Mineral Resources fell 8 per cent to close at a three-year low of $40.61 after amid soft lithium prices after reporting an 80 per cent dive in its underlying annual profit to $158m late on Wednesday. “It’s highly unlikely that we’d be looking at any acquisitions of any kind over the next 12 months,” managing director Chris Ellison said. “We’re basically in super conservative mode, and we’re just managing the business ... the current environment is that we’re down on commodity prices.” MinRes decided against declaring a final dividend for the year. Wesfarmers Limited, the country’s biggest non-food retailer and owner of Kmart, Bunnings Warehouse and Priceline, posted a $2.6bn profit but its share price closed down 4 per cent at $74. Managing director Rob Scott said Kmart had delivered “significant” growth, with sales rising 4.4 per cent to $11.1bn and earnings rising by 25 per cent to $958m. “Kmart Group’s performance was a standout, delivering significant earnings growth supported by the market-leading value credentials of its Anko products,” he said. Bega Cheese was the day’s best performer up nearly 10 per cent to close at $4.66 after reporting a return to profit following “a significant recovery in the profitability of the branded segment.” Bega, the owner of Vegemite and dairy brands including Dairy Farmers, made a net profit after tax of $30.5m, turning around a loss of $230m from the previous year. Australia’s biggest airline Qantas also reported its results on Thurdsay, revealing an underlying profit of $2.08bn – down 16 per cent on last year’s record result – and a net debt of $4.1bn. Its profit after tax was $1.25bn compared to 2023’s $1.74bn, thanks to strong performances by Jetstar and Qantas Domestic. Chief executive Vanessa Hudson also announced the first of Qantas’ new “longest-range” Airbus A321XLR aircraft, which will allow for more non-stop routes, will be operating in April next year. The aviation group will add 28 of these aircraft as it progressively replaces its Boeing 737s over the next 10 years. The bottom performing stocks on Thursday were Red 5 (down 13.01 per cent) and transport operator Kelsian group (down 8.71 per cent). Over the last five days, the index has been virtually unchanged, but is currently 1.27 per cent below its 52-week high. Meanwhile, the first of the big four bank chief executives appeared before the house standing committee on economics, Westpac Group boss Peter King says he believes the cash rate will settle from a 13-year high of 4.35 per cent to a “low 3 per cent range” as Australia navigates a tough economic climate. Mr King said about 0.6 per cent of Westpac customers, or 19,000 of the bank’s 3.1 million customers, were in hardship arrangements, with total loan stress increasing to 1.4 per cent. Commonwealth Bank chief Matt Comyn said his bank’s customers were being hit hard by rising costs despite Australia’s economy being “fundamentally sound” amid “global uncertainty”. Many customers were “finding it difficult to deal with the high cost of living, with families “cutting back” on non-essentials and dipping into their savings, he said. NAB and ANZ will appear before the committee on Friday.