The market finished the week at 6,054.94, down 14.21 points from the previous week's close of 6,069.15.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On Friday's trade, the All Ordinaries finished up 27.34 points or 0.44 per cent.
On Monday, BlueScope (BSL) rose 3.7pc on news Australia will become the third country exempt of US tariffs. Although Australia is a relatively small exporter of the metal, BSL accounts for most of those exports. BSL ended the week on $15.60.
Newcrest (NCM) slumped 4.6pc after temporarily shutting its Cadia mine in NSW due to an issue with its tailings dam, which stores mining by-products. While NCM said this has been contained it still expects earnings to be impacted. NCM ended the week on $19.73.
On Tuesday, The Labor party flagged plans to make changes to dividend franking credits from July 1, 2019. Franking credits ensure company profits (which have already been taxed) are not taxed again for investors. According to Labor, less than 1pc of pensioners will be affected and 92pc of taxpayers will not be impacted.
On Wednesday, the ACCC raised competition concerns relating to Pacific National’s proposed purchase of Aurizon’s (AZJ) Queensland freight haulage business. It believes the merging of the two businesses will “fundamentally change this market”. AZJ has responded saying it is disappointed with the ACCC’s findings and said it is committed to finalizing asset sales by July. Pacific National is Australia’s largest rail operator. AZJ ended the week on $4.37.
On Thursday, tourist data was released revealing arrivals rose by 2.4pc to a record high of 760k in January. China is still our biggest source of tourists with 1.38 million visiting over the year while 1.35m visited from New Zealand.
At the close of weekly trading, the gold price finished at $1,312.30 per ounce, the WTI oil price traded at $62.41 a barrel, and the Australian dollar was worth US $0.77. In the US on Friday night, the Dow Jones finished up 72.85 points to end the week at 24,946.51. The Share Price Index (SPI) finished up 27 points at 5,974 which should lead to a positive start to today’s trade.