Australian Shares Inch Up; Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Agrees to Acquire Queensland Bank’s Retail Lending Assets, Deposits
MT Newswires -Shutterstock
Australian shares closed higher at Thursday’s close, as softened US jobs data raised interest rate cut bets.
The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3% or 23.3 points to close at 8,618.4.
ADP Research said US Private-sector payrolls decreased by 32,000, enhancing concerns of a quick weakening of the labour market, Bloomberg reported.
“Financial markets are confident that the next week’s FOMC meeting will result in another 25bp fed funds rate cut,” said Mantas Vanagas, Senior Economist at Westpac Group.
“The expectation is there will be a rate cut, but the guidance will be more hawkish,” said Veronica Clark, an economist at Citigroup Inc.
On the domestic front, Australian household spending’s increase of 1.3% in October was well above market expectations, and it was the strongest monthly increase since January 2024, ANZ Research said.
Australia’s goods surplus rose to AU$4.39 billion in October from AU$3.71 billion in September, according to data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Australia’s headline economic growth of 0.4% in the September quarter hides a robust domestic demand amid an improvement in supply, Westpac (ASX:WBC) said.
In company news, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (ASX:BEN) agreed to acquire Racq Bank’s retail lending assets and deposits for a purchase price to be based on the book value of the transferring book at completion.
Vulcan Energy Resources (ASX:VUL) raised AU$710 million after completing an institutional placement of 61 million shares and an entitlement offer of 116 million new shares at AU$4 per share. Shares of the company fell past 32% at market close.
Lastly, G8 Education (ASX:GEM) said further criminal charges have been laid against its former employee Joshua Dale Brown concerning his employment at three non-G8 Education centers. Shares of the company fell 1% at market close.
