The Australian share market has stumbled into the red on the first day of the new financial year and share-trading platform Robinhood has been fined more than $90 million for misleading customers.
Losses on the All Ordinaries index deepened in afternoon trade with coronavirus lockdowns and financial stocks weighing on the market.
It dropped 0.6 per cent to 7,541.
The ASX 200 index fell 0.7 per cent to 7,266.
All sectors ended lower with consumer stocks, banks and healthcare firms leading the falls.
Going down were mineral sands miner Iluka Resources (-4.9pc), Chalice Mining (-5.9pc) and grocery distributor Metcash (-4.5pc).
The few bright spots on the market were gold miners Regis Resources (+8.1pc) and St Barbara (+5.6pc) and troubled software firm Nuix (+5.4pc), which recovered some of yesterday’s losses.
Today’s performance was in contrast to the 2020-21 financial year, which ended yesterday.
The ASX 200 had its best financial year on record in 2020-21 increasing by 24 per cent despite the pandemic.
Boral rejects latest Seven takeover bid
Billionaire Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group raised its takeover offer for building materials firm Boral to $7.30 a share without conditions.
The company said it now owns 29 per cent of Boral and would raise the offer to $7.40 a share if it increased its stake in Boral to 34.5 per cent by July 7.
That offer values the company at around $9 billion.
But Boral swiftly told investors to yet again reject the takeover bid.
“The Boral Independent Board Committee continues to unanimously recommend that you reject the Seven offer of $7.30 per Boral share and the second conditional increase, as both still undervalue your shares.”
Seven’s shares fell slightly to $20.34 while Boral shares gained 0.1 per cent to $7.36.
Deja vu for Lendlease
Property developer Lendlease (-2.8pc) cut its profit forecast for the second year in a row.
Lendlease said challenging conditions caused by coronavirus would hurt its annual profit.
It predicts net profit for 2021 could come in between $200 million to $320 million.
New chief executive Tony Lombardo said the company continued to be hit by COVID-19 around the world, especially in the United Kingdom with London lockdowns leading to delays in purchasing, investment and leasing.
Payday for Ian Narev
Former Commonwealth Bank boss Ian Narev began his new job as the chief executive of employment website Seek (-0.8pc), replacing Andrew Bassat.
Mr Narev will get paid $1.9 million annually but he is also eligible for payouts under Seek’s executive equity plan and wealth sharing plan.
He left CBA in the wake of financial scandals including a money laundering scandal.
REA Group (-0.6pc) has bought mortgage broker Mortgage Choice for $244 million.
Online property platform PEXA Group added 0.1 per cent to $17.15 on its debut on the ASX.
The Bank of Queensland (-1.4pc) completed its purchase of industry super fund bank ME Bank for just over $1.3 billion.
Westpac (-0.6pc) said it had completed the $725 million sale of its general insurance business to Allianz.
Oil prices edged higher, with Brent crude at $US74.74 a barrel, up 0.2 per cent.
Spot gold rose 0.4 per cent to $US1,777 an ounce.
The Australian dollar fell to the lowest level since December’s 74.77 US cents.
At 4:50pm AEST, it was buying around 74.82 US cents, down 0.2 per cent.
Trade surplus and job vacancies soar
Australia’s trade surplus lifted by $1.5 billion to $9.7 billion in May thanks to record iron ore exports, according to the Bureau of Statistics.
And job vacancies surged by nearly one quarter from February to May to be 57 per cent above pre pandemic levels.
The National Australia Bank said the growth in job vacancies suggests the unemployment rate could fall faster than official forecasts.
“Today’s data shows that despite the recovery in employment to date, vacancies indicate labour demand has grown further and again points to further improvement in the labour market.”
A recent ABS survey showed that 27 per cent of firms had difficulties finding staff in June.
Other economic data showed that China’s manufacturing industry expanded at a slower pace in June.