The Match Out: Stocks ease on low volume

The best of it was seen early today with the index pushing up on open, only to lose steam from midday onwards and trickle lower into the close – still, there is not a lot of new impetus to sell the market, and as one fund manager we had lunch with today who looks after $10bn+ said, volumes are becoming tough when moving around the market at size, in other words, it’s paying to be smaller and nimble in this environment.

• The ASX 200 finished down -4pts/ -0.07% to 7073
• The Utilities (+0.88%), Energy (+0.46%) and Healthcare (+0.354%) were best on ground.
• Property (-1.53%), Tech (-1.13%) and Communications (-1.01%) were weak.
• Origin Energy (ASX: ORG) +1.69% moved higher, although still sits at a ~8% discount a day out from the Scheme meeting on its future, which seems unlikely to get up.
• Praemium (ASX: PPS) -35% had a shocker, downgrading earnings guidance by ~30% at their AGM today, the stock fell more.
• ANZ (ASX: ANZ) +0.21% told staff that bonuses would be linked to attendance in the office.
• Healius (ASX: HLS) -27% was whacked after completing a $154 million share offer priced at $1.20, shares closed today at $1.22.Probably not a bad bet now the balance sheet is in order.
• Bubs (ASX: BUB) Halted pending a capital raise to fund US expansion.
• Bowen Coking Coal (ASX: BCB) +18.18% edges higher – now up 44% from the raise price of 9c.
• Medibank (ASX: MPL) -1.42% fell despite re-affirming guidance.
• EBOS (ASX: EBO)’ $3.75bn deal to acquire TPG Capital-backed pets and vets business Greencross has fallen through.
• Gold was flat trading US$1998/oz at our close.
• Iron Ore remained comfortable above US$130/mt
• Asian stocks were mixed, Hong Kong flat, Japan +0.36% and China -0.34%.
• US Futures are flat
• Thanksgiving on Thursday in the US and a half-day trade on Friday.

ASX 200 Intraday

ASX 200 Daily

Praemium (PPS) 37.5c

PPS -35.34%: a tough day for the investment platform business, tumbling on comments made at their AGM. The company has been working hard to right size its cost base but it is facing headwinds on both costs and revenues and today’s update sent the stock to 3-year lows. On the revenue front, lower trading volumes have weighed on income given Praemium clips the ticket on activity. They also take their keep from cash balances which have been running lower than FY23.

On the cost front, the company will take a one-off $1m hit on restructuring charges and capex continues to climb in line with inflation. As a result, the company expects 1H EBITDA to be down 20% on last year where consensus was expecting ~10% growth. A pretty frustrating update from the company today, our outlook turns more cautious as a result

Broker Moves

• HUB24 Raised to Overweight at Wilsons; PT A$37.23
• IPH Raised to Add at Morgans Financial Limited; PT A$8.15
• Adbri Raised to Neutral at Citi; PT A$2.25
• Karoon Energy Raised to Buy at Goldman; PT A$2.68
• New Hope Raised to Neutral at Citi; PT A$5.20
• Technology One Cut to Hold at Bell Potter; PT A$17.25

Major Movers Today