AU Morning Wrap: Star, Aurizon, Fletcher Sink; Endeavour Leads Gains

Wall Street's main indices finished mixed as investors weighed upbeat consumer sentiment data, rising bond yields and mostly disappointing corporate earnings.

A 13-month high in consumer sentiment soothed recession worries. The University of Michigan's preliminary reading climbed to 66.4 from 64.9 in January. A separate measure about how Americans feel about the state of the economy rose to its highest in 14 months.

JB Hi-Fi dropped 2.8 per cent to $45.34 after warning that sales growth in January has started to slow.

Aurizon fell 6.5 per cent to $3.45 after lowering its EBITDA guidance for FY23 by 4 per cent.

Beach Energy eased 0.3 per cent to $1.50, Lendlease dropped 3.9 per cent to $7.98 and Endeavour Group rose 3.5 per cent to $7.06 following their half-year results.

Appen plunged 11.1 per cent to $2.95 after flagging it expects to recognise a non-cash, pre-tax impairment charge of $204.3 million in its results for the year ended December 31.

Group EBIT rose 15.8 per cent to $644 million, and net profit after tax jumped 17 per cent to $364 million.

The company declared an interim dividend of 14.3¢ a share, up 14.4 per cent on the first half of FY22.

Endeavour said trading stabilised in the first five weeks of the second half, with retail sales in line with the prior year.

The company's hotels business performed well in the period, with sales up 31.5 per cent on last year.

The company's core operating profit after tax was $105 million, compared with $28 million. Funds under management grew 8 per cent to $48 billion.

The company declared an interim distribution of 4.9¢ a share.

Pro-forma EBITDA rose 17 per cent to $211 million (pro-forma calculations assume 100 per cent ownership of Trader Interactive in the first half of FY22 and FY23).

Underlying EBITDA fell 4 per cent to $491 million and underlying net profit after tax was down 10 per cent to $191 million.

The company announced a new dividend policy aligned with free cash flow generation, targeting a payout ratio of 40-50 per cent of pre-growth free cash flow.

Beach declared an interim dividend of 2¢ a share.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were up 14 per cent to $479.2 million, with strong sales growth and improved gross margins, partially offset by increases to cost of doing business as the group cycled COVID-related store closures in the prior corresponding period (pcp).

Net profit after tax rose 14.6 per cent to $329.9 million.

JB Hi-Fi declared in interim dividend of $1.97 a share, up 20.9 per cent on the pcp.

Cash earnings jumped 26.7 per cent to $223 million, while its underlying insurance margin fell by 440 basis points to 10.7 per cent.

Underlying net profit after tax dropped 34 per cent to $169 million. On a statutory basis, net profit from continuing operations dropped 49 per cent to $130 million.

Aurizon declared a fully franked interim dividend of 7¢ a share.

The company lowered its EBITDA guidance for FY23 by 4 per cent to a range of $1.42 billion to $1.47 billion, reflecting prolonged wet weather and a two-week Blackwater derailment outage.

• Oil capped its best week since October with further gains on Friday after Russia retaliated against western price caps by slashing production. Moscow announced it would reduce output by 500,000 barrels per day next month.

Brent crude settled US$1.89 or 2.2 per cent higher at US$86.39 a barrel. For the week, the international benchmark gained 8.1 per cent. The US benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, put on 2.1 per cent for the day and 8.6 per cent for the week.

• Iron ore overcame early weakness amid signs steel margins were improving from depressed levels. Analysts at Sinosteel reported profitability at steel mills had risen for five weeks, with an accompanying lift in output of molten iron.

The most-traded May ore on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange ended daytime trade 0.8 per cent ahead at 863.50 yuan (US$126.98) a tonne.

• Gold booked a modest weekly loss as a rising greenback and improving returns on US treasuries depressed interest in alternative stores of wealth. Gold for April delivery settled US$4 or 0.2 per cent lower on Friday at US$1,874.50 an ounce.

The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index dipped 0.23 per cent. For the week, the yellow metal lost 0.1 per cent.