ASX edges up 0.2%. CSL's guidance overrides $3.7B loss. Pro Medicus profit up 130%. BHP boosts dividend. Takeover bids lift Reliance and Ausgold; Equity Trustees jumps 21%.
Australian shares edged up 0.2% on Tuesday. A flood of corporate results reshaped sector leadership. The S&P/ASX 200 added 0.2%, with six of 11 sectors in the red. The dispersion underneath was wide.
Healthcare jumped more than 6%. CSL surged more than 16% after saying it expects to return to underlying earnings growth this year. The blood plasma giant also reported a near-$3.7 billion annual loss. Its Vifor kidney and iron deficiency unit remains weak. U.S. vaccine rates continue to drag on recovery.
Pro Medicus climbed 12% after reporting full-year revenue of $261 million, up 22.9%. Net profit hit $265 million, a 130% gain. It secured 10 new contracts worth $407 million, most from major U.S. hospitals.
Resources also strengthened. BHP rose nearly 3% after announcing its biggest dividend in four years, supported by booming copper prices. Rio Tinto and Fortescue were flat. Woodside and Santos each gained more than 1%. Oil prices pushed above $90 a barrel.
Financials weighed on the benchmark. All four major banks traded lower. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank fell 9% after the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority imposed licence conditions, citing “longstanding and pervasive weaknesses” in its risk management framework. Judo Capital rose 12.6% after reporting a 29% rise in full-year net profit to $111 million. Its net interest margin expanded 20 basis points to 3%, above the company's own guidance.
Retail remained under pressure after JB Hi-Fi's earnings-driven sell-off on Monday. Aristocrat and Light & Wonder each fell more than 1%. The Lottery Corporation also declined. Wesfarmers dropped 1.2%. JB Hi-Fi itself recovered 2%.
Takeover activity produced the day's biggest single-stock moves. Reliance Worldwide jumped 24% after Brookfield Capital Partners lifted its offer to $4.75 a share, a 31.6% premium to its previous close. The bid values the plumbing supplies company at roughly $4.1 billion. Reliance said the proposal followed three earlier offers and that it had agreed to proceed, though no deal is certain. Ausgold surged nearly 24% after agreeing to an all-share takeover by Canada's OceanaGold. The deal values the Western Australian gold developer at $776 million. Equity Trustees rose almost 21% after U.S. private equity firm TPG Global made a $657.9 million bid. The proposal comes as Equity Trustees faces legal action tied to the Shield and First Guardian investment schemes.
Other earnings results were mixed. Challenger added 8.5% after flagging a $450 million buyback and a special 1.5¢ dividend alongside a $506 million net profit. HUB24 reported a 42% increase in net profit to $120.2 million. Its shares fell 7.5%. Sims more than tripled net profit to $289 million for FY26. Its shares dropped 10.9%. EML Payments fell 14% after reporting a narrower net loss of $19.7 million and forecasting a return to profit this year. Brazilian Rare Earths fell 2.3% after retracting its Rocha da Rocha production target.
Gold held a two-day gain near $4,420 an ounce. Softer U.S. economic data and reduced expectations for another Federal Reserve rate increase weighed on the dollar.
Among the stocks covered, BHP carries an Alpha Score of 73 out of 100, a moderate rating in Basic Materials. TPG, whose bid for Equity Trustees shook the wealth sector, scores 53 out of 100 in Financial Services. CSL is unscored by the same measure.
Earnings season is in full swing. Investors are recalibrating around fresh guidance and capital returns. Takeover prospects are also in focus.
Prepared with AlphaScala editorial tooling from the source reporting linked above. Indexable analysis may include a cited Alpha Score value. Publishing checks screen each story before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.