ASX reporting season updates: Everything you need to know about companies revealing results today

Australia’s share market has reset its record close for a second time in as many days despite a modest uptick to end the week.

The S&P/ASX200 rose 23.3 points, up 0.3 per cent to 9198.6, and up 3.7 per cent in February, as it notched its best close.

The all ordinaries gained 26.9 points, or 0.3 per cent, to a record close of 9435.6.

It was a third-straight week and month of gains for both indices, which have pipped several intraday and closing record highs since Monday.

Local equities have been buoyed by strong local earnings and a global rotation from IT stocks into other sectors, particularly commodities, as investor appetites shift from eye-watering tech growth to sturdier, finite resources.

“Australian shares are a key beneficiary of the rotation trade, helped by the now concluded December half-earnings reporting season confirming that listed company profits are rising again,” AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said.

The local bourse is up 5.5 per cent in 2026, compared to 2.8 per cent for global stocks, almost two-thirds of which are US shares.

Seven of 11 local sectors ended the day higher, led by communications, utilities and basic materials stocks, as consumer staples tumbled in the wake of Coles’ first-half earnings miss.

Materials continued to do much of the heavy lifting, up one per cent on Friday and 8.7 per cent higher in February, as the sector wrapped a remarkable eight months of gains to trade at record highs.

Iron ore and copper giant BHP reset its all-time high every session this week, settling at $58.41 heading into the weekend after soaring almost 29 per cent this year.

Despite some one-off impacts in the report, it appeared Coles had lost some of its hard-fought lead over Woolworths, IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said.

“This is classic duopoly ping-pong, where one surges, the other counters and overall, what we’re seeing is basically the equivalent of a dodgy trolley race through the parking lot at peak hour,” Mr Sycamore told AAP.

“It keeps things interesting, but the finishing line is a long way away.”

Tens of thousands of Budget Direct customers lost promised insurance discounts worth a total of $3.3 million in savings, the corporate regulator claims.

The corporate reglator has launched legal action against Auto & General Services Pty Ltd, the insurer managing Budget Direct products, after 39,000 customers were alleged to have been overcharged for premiums over several years.

The misconduct occurred between March 2020 and July 2024, the regulator says.

It is seeking declarations and fines from the court.

Significant discounts of up to 30 per cent for Budget Direct customers who purchased car, home or motorbike insurance policies online were promoted.

It is alleged the advertising was misleading because customers were not told the online discounts would be removed following any changes made to their policies, such as a change in address.

The average premium discount loss amounted to almost $100.

It is alleged Auto & General first became aware of the problem as early as 2016, but failed to inform affected customers for years.

Staff did not immediately try to fix the problem.

ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said the case highlighted the importance of the regulator’s prioritisation of enforcement on misleading pricing practices.

“Australians should be able to take insurers at their word, especially when it comes to discounts that influence their decision to take up a policy and compare it to other products in the market,” she said.

“We allege Budget Direct’s conduct was misleading and deprived tens of thousands of Australians millions of dollars in savings they were promised.”

Auto & General has since paid more than $3.8 million in remediation inclusive of interest to the 39,000 customers impacted during the almost four-year period.

The Australian share market is pulling back from a fresh record high, weighed down by S&P/ASX200 bellwethers Commonwealth Bank and Coles.

The nation’s biggest lender was down almost 2 per cent after the first few hours of trade amid investor concerns about $1 billion in home loans that may have been issued fraudulently.

The bank has called in police and the corporate watchdog to investigate potentially doctored applications.

WA lithium miner Liontown was the day’s biggest loser so far, tumbling almost 9 per cent.

Coles also shed 8.8 per cent after a profit miss while Harvey Norman fell 6.6 per cent despite reporting a solid first half.

The decline at Coles took the consumer staples sector with it, dropping more than 3 per cent.

Afterpay owner Block was the market leader, adding 28 per cent after the Jack Dorsey-led fintech revealed it would sack almost half its workforce - 4000 people - as it pushes deeper into AI.

Fellow buy now, pay later outfit Zip also soared 7 per cent. WA miners Capricorn Metals and Iluka Resources added gains of about 7 per cent.

By the mid-way point on the final day of trade for the week, nine of 11 sectors had managed to eke out small gains.

The index was treading water, down just 5 points to 9170.

The company named after beloved Australian chef Maggie Beer is still considering the possible sale of its popular hampers business, after turning around its earnings.

Maggie Beer Holdings was back in the black today after reporting a net profit of $398,000.

The result for the six months ended December was a stunning turnaround from the previous corresponding period, when it made a loss of more than $4 million.

Chair Mark Lindh said the group had taken more than $2min costs out of the business, renewed its board and completed a shareholder placement to improve its cashflow.

“Pleasingly, some of the most iconic Maggie Beer products have continued to deliver significant improvement in ... in-store sales and through a burgeoning export channel,” he said in a statement.

Its Hampers and Gifts Australia arm - which is the biggest segment - had a difficult half in the run-up to Christmas, after losing website traffic due to technology changes and speed issues.

The company, of which Ms Beer is a director with a holding of 2 per cent, increased its advertising to offset that loss and was “partly successful” but still faced competition headwinds.

Sales of the iconic Maggie Beer Verjuice rose more than 52 per cent, mainly due to higher exports.

“Increasing export sales in key markets where the Maggie Beer name has strong brand equity will continue to be a key focus of the team in the second half,” the company said.

Underlying earnings for the products division fell 63 per cent to $404,000.

The company believes it’s “well placed” ahead of its full-year results announcement on August 27.

In 2024/25, it reported a statutory net loss of $24.3m.

Maggie Beer Holdings shares were trading flat at 8.1c, in very low volume, in the morning session.

Ms Beer established the Maggie Beer Foundation in 2014 to improve food for older Australians, particularly those living within aged care homes.

Australia Post’s obligation to deliver letters could become a “long-term burden” on taxpayers without government reform, the service’s chief executive says.

Releasing half-year financial results on Friday, Australia Post revealed the overall letter delivering operations caused a net $2.1 million loss, though revenue had been boosted by a 20c basic postage rate price hike.

The letter delivery obligation is a major concern for AusPost, with chief executive Paul Graham warning the service could become a “long-term burden” on taxpayers.

“While Australia Post delivered a modest half-year profit, our parcels business has performed well amid growing headwinds in a rapidly evolving competitive environment and, for now, is able to support our letters service, which is in steep structural decline,” Mr Graham said.

During the second half of 2025, AusPost delivered 734.2 million letters, down 11.5 per cent.

Read the full story here

Shares in supermarket behemoth Coles have plunged 6.6 per cent to $20.71 in early trade as investors chew over its half-year results.

The grocer had earlier reported an 11 per cent fall in statutory profit as it copped a $235m hit from a staff underpayments error.

It also reported sales at its liquor division continued to flounder.

Jack Dorsey’s Block is cutting 4000 employees, reducing its workforce by nearly half, in a move the financial technology firm is describing as a bet on artificial intelligence changing the future of labour productivity.

Block, which owns Australia’s buy now, pay later service Afterpay, has been restructuring its business model and staffing since 2024 as the company’s stock has lagged. At the same time, the company has invested heavily in AI tools to run more efficiently, including building its own tool called Goose.

The reduction in force, which was announced in a shareholder letter on Thursday, comes after rolling job eliminations that have often been tied to annual performance reviews.

Dorsey, the company’s co-founder, said in a call with analysts that he believes many companies will ultimately have to make similar moves due to AI.

Read the full story ​here​

Profit at Harvey Norman has soared despite the backdrop of a competitive retail market.

The retailer said there was continued customer demand across technology-led categories, particularly AI-enabled computing and mobile devices, alongside a steady performance in core homemaker categories.

Pre-tax profit of $466.3 million was up 16.5 per cent compared to the first half of FY25.

Excluding net property revaluations and the impact of AASB 16 leases, profit before tax rose to $372.8m - up 20.1 per cent, reflecting improved earnings contributions across franchising operations, overseas retail businesses and the property portfolio.

Post-tax profit was 15.2 per cent higher at $321.9m, with total system sales rising almost 7 per cent to $5.16 billion.

Chairman Gerry Harvey said the result reflected the strength of the integrated retail, franchising and property model.

“This is a very solid first-half result, with profit growth driven by higher system sales, disciplined cost control and strong performances across our franchising operations and overseas retail businesses,” he said.

A focus on costs helped Harvey Norman reduce operating expenses to 17.8 per cent of system sales, compared with 18 per cent in the prior corresponding period.

The board decalred a fully franked interim dividend of 14.5c a share.

Virgin Australia says it is being weighed down by above-inflation cost pressures - and like rival Qantas yesterday pointed the finger at airport charges.

It also said aircraft maintenance costs were high and warned “the broader aviation industry must remain vigilant on costs so aviation doesn’t become unaffordable for Australians”.

In its first report since it re-listed on the ASX in June last year, Virgin today booked a statutory net profit of $341m for the six months to the end of December - down almost 28 per cent from a year earlier.

The first-half decline was the result of a 30 per cent effective tax rate incurred after the airline was taken out of administration in late 2020.

“Due to sustained profit delivery since exiting administration, all tax losses have been fully utilised and Virgin Australia is now in a tax-paying position,” it said.

But underlying net profit was up 20.7 per cent to $279m, driven by higher earnings of $490m while demand remained high as passengers continued to prioritise travel despite the stubbornly high cost of living.

Revenue was up 9.3 per cent to $3.32 billion.

“The 1HFY26 results were underpinned by continued progress in the group’s transformation program, which delivered more than $200m in gross benefits,” the airline said.

“Together with savings in fuel costs, this partly offset inflationary headwinds and contributed to further margin expansion, with the underlying EBIT margin increasing by 40 basis points to 14.8 per cent.”

Virgin said it expects demand for air travel to remain strong and it would add between 2 and 3 per cent domestic capacity in the second half of FY26 and 3 per cent in the first quarter of FY27.

Coles has carried solid sales growth for the first half of the financial year into the start of 2026, but says the supermarket sector remains “highly competitive” as shoppers chase value amid the prospect of increasing interest rates.

The grocer today reported group-wide sales growth of 3.6 per cent for the six months to January 4 to $23.6 billion.

Supermarket sales climbed 3.6 per cent compared to the same time a year ago to $21.4b, with its liquor division bringing in $1.94b - down 3.2 per cent as the booze market remained subdued and competition from rivals increased.

The results delivered a net profit of $511 million, which was down 11.3 per cent when significant items were taken into account. Excluding those items, profit was up 12.5 per cent to $676m.

The bottom line took a $235m pre-tax hit from a Federal Court ruling in September last year over staff underpayments.

“We know value remains front of mind for our customers and we are well placed to deliver great value through our Exclusive to Coles range, as well as our seasonal value campaigns, weekly promotions and loyalty offers,” Coles CEO Leah Weckert said.

“We are also focused on ensuring we invest in the right areas of our portfolio over the longer term for the benefit of our customers and to create value for our shareholders.”

Coles added 500 new products to its Exclusive to Coles range during the half and grew its Flybuys rewards program by 6.2 per cent to more than 10 million members as it aims to win loyalty from its customers.

The supermarket giant will pay out a fully franked interim dividend of 41c a share.