ASX falls as miners weigh; AMP shares soar 13pc

The Australian sharemarket fell on Thursday, dragged lower by a sell-off in mining stocks and a weaker iron ore price.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index slipped 0.2 per cent, or by 17.8 points, to 7682 at the closing bell, as five of the 11 sectors finished in the red. It follows a weak session on Wall Street after a poorly received auction of 10-year Treasury notes hit investor sentiment.

The All Ordinaries slid 0.3 per cent.

On the ASX, the materials stocks were among the worst performers, falling 1.8 per cent. BHP Group declined 2 per cent to $40.21, Rio Tinto lost 2.1 per cent to $114.16 and Fortescue Metals dropped 1.8 per cent to $18.10.

IG analyst Tony Sycamore wrote in a note to clients that the “big miners lost ground” on the lower iron ore price with Singapore futures off 1.7 per cent to $US99.2 a tonne in late afternoon trading.

Elsewhere in the sector, IGO fell 2.5 per cent to $5.09 after the miner announced that it was considering divesting some of its nickel assets. The company signed an agreement with Medallion Metals where the latter may pick up the Cosmic Boy processing facility and associated infrastructure at IGO’s Forrestania nickel project.

Real estate stocks also finished in the red on Thursday after property developer Mirvac forecast lower earnings and distributions in the 2025 financial year as higher costs eat into margins on apartment projects. The shares tumbled 9 per cent to $1.92.

The result also dragged shares of Goodman down 2.2 per cent to $32.33 and Scentre off 1.5 per cent to $3.31.

Stocks in focus

AMP shares jumped 13.2 per cent to $1.28 after it reported a 5.4 per cent increase in net profit to $118 million in the half-year. The financial services giant also declared an interim partially franked dividend of 2¢ per share. It was the best-performing stock on the ASX 200.

Qantas announced that former chief executive Alan Joyce would lose more than $9 million from his pay after a board-commissioned review found mistakes made by the airline’s management had created reputational and customer service issues. The airline’s shares lost 2.2 per cent to $5.84.

Transurban slid 0.8 per cent to $12.78 after it reported lower-than-expected income from roads in Sydney and Melbourne.

Light & Wonder climbed 1.8 per cent to $159.87 after it posted growing revenue in its latest quarterly report. Gaming revenue increased to $US539 million, up 14 per cent compared to the prior year period. The company said the gains were driven by growing sales of its gaming machines.

And Myer dropped 7.1 per cent to 78¢ after the retailer warned that net profit would be between $50 million and $54 million in FY24 – down from $71.1 million in the prior year – due to challenging trading conditions, the impact of store closures and inflationary cost pressures.

Pacific Smiles shares tumbled 7.4 per cent to $1.87 after its shareholders voted down the $327 million takeover of the dentistry group by Crescent Capital.