ASX 200 opens in green; NWS jumps 9% amid Q1 FY22 earnings

Australian shares opened higher on the last day of the week ending 5 November 2021, extending rally for a third consecutive session. Strong opening was supported by improving global risk sentiment, while strong bullion prices helped gold miners to rake up opening gains. The ASX 200 hovered around 0.33% or 24.4 points up at 7,440.8 in early trade.

Image Source: © Embe2006 | Megapixl.com

Global stocks rallied to new records on Thursday on the back of US Federal Reserve’s decision to start tapering its bond-buying program from November 2021 and the Bank of England's move to keep interest rates unchanged.

ASX lifts on Friday; CBA hikes mortgage rates

The S&P 500 and NASDAQ closed in the green on Thursday, extending their streaks of all-time high closes to six trading sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed mildly down by 0.09% to 36,124.23, while the S&P 500 rose 0.42% to 4,680.06. The NASDAQ Composite ended the session 0.81% up at 15,940.31.

How has the market performed so far?

As of 11:00 AM AEDT, the benchmark index extended its rally by 0.65% or 48.5 points to 7,476.5, while the ASX All Ordinaries index also gained 0.59% or 45.9 points to 7,792.2. The A-VIX was down 7.55% to 11.72.

Data Source: ASX Website (as of 5 November 2021, 11:00 AM AEDT)

The top ASX 200 contributors in early trade were Link Administration Holdings Limited (ASX:LNK) and News Corporation (ASX:NWS), both gaining 11.54% and 8.78%, respectively. On the flip side, Virgin Money UK PLC (ASX:VUK) and Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX:CUV) were the top two laggards, shedding 11.83% and 9.93%, respectively.

On the sectoral front, nine out of the 11 sectors are trading positive so far, with the Telecom sector leading the pack, gaining 1.33%, followed by over 1% gain each in the Materials and A-REIT sectors. IT stocks are witnessing a decent selling pressure, and have lost 1.42% so far.

Newsmakers

1. Perenti Global Limited (ASX:PRN)

• Mining services company Perenti has denied reports that it is attempting to snap up a rival mining company Macmahon.
• The share price fell around 0.5% in early trade.

2. Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX:WPL)

• The management has hiked its 1P field reserves estimates by 10% at its Greater Pluto gas project.
• Simultaneously, it reduced its 2P field estimate by around 10%.
• The Greater Pluto region has 2P total reserves of approximately 360 million barrels of oil.

3. Pendal Group Limited (ASX:PDL)

• The company reported a jump of 41.5% in net profit to AU$164.7 million in FY21, over the last year.
• Revenue also increased 34.6% to AU$627.4 million during the same period.
• The group declared a final dividend of 11 cents per share, to pe paid on 16 December 2021.

4. Central Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA)

• Australia’s largest home loan provider has increased fixed rates on home loans by 0.1% to 0.5%.
• The bank has hiked rates second time in around a month.
• On 4 November 2021, rival bank Westpac had also hiked rates second time in around two weeks by a total of 0.21%.

5. News Corporation (ASX:NWS)

• News Corp posted a net profit of US$267 million for the quarter ended September 2021.
• Reported earnings per share (EPS) jumped multi-fold to 33 cents per share, from 0.06 cents a year ago.
• The company also flagged its plans to commence a US$1 billion stock buyback.  

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