AU Morning Wrap: AMP Sinks in Early Trading; Sonic, Orora Rally

Wall Street's main indices overcame early weakness after retail sales saw their biggest surge in almost two years. Stocks opened lower as futures markets adjusted to the prospect of higher rates for longer.

AMP was down 6 per cent to $1.23 as its pool of assets under management were hit by investment losses in a volatile market, and $5.3 billion in net cash outflows from the financial advice and superannuation businesses.

Orora jumped 7 per cent to $3.11 on its forecast for higher earnings in FY23.

Whitehaven Coal fell 3.4 per cent to $7.91 on its first-result and unchanged guidance.

Total income rose 6.4 per cent to $11.6 billion. EBITDA increased 11.4 per cent to $3.9 billion, driven by "momentum from the mobiles business and support from the acquisition of Digicel Pacific".

First-quarter cash earnings rose 18 per cent compared with the 2H22 quarterly average, driven by the higher interest rates.

Net interest margin (NIM) rose 12 basis points to 1.79 per cent, similarly benefitting from the rising interest rate environment but partly offset by home lending competition.

Newcrest has indicated to Newmont that it is prepared to provide access to limited, non-public information on a non-exclusive basis to determine if Newmont can provide an improved offer.

It will pay an interim dividend of 32¢ a share, fully franked, up from 8¢.

The ASX-listed wealth manager on Thursday announced a final dividend of 2.5¢ a share (20 per cent franked) and statutory net profit after tax of $387 million at December 31, up from a loss of $252 million in the previous year.

The board still declared an interim dividend of 46.9 that is 85 per cent franked.
The company said the financial performance reflected accelerated changes to the business, reduction in funds management and challenging conditions for markets as global equities fell 12.2 per cent for the year.

Magellan's interim statutory first half net profit declined to $83.8 million from $251.6 million a year earlier.

Pro forma net profit after tax climbed 2.3 per cent to $62 million in the six months to December 31, while pro forma EBITDA rose 6.7 per cent to $146.3 million.

The company declared a fully franked interim dividend of 10.5¢ a share, up 5 per cent on the prior period.

Dividends paid: None

• Iron ore rallied after China's central bank pumped additional liquidity into the banking system to stimulate lending.

The People's Bank of China kept benchmark rates unchanged, but injected an additional US$29 billion into the system. The move followed signs of tighter monetary conditions this month that threatened to stifle the Covid-reopening recovery.

The most-traded May ore ended daytime trade on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange 2.2 per cent ahead at 865.50 yuan (US$126.30) a tonne.

• Gold, which has an inverse relationship with the greenback, closed at its weakest level since early January. Gold for April delivery settled US$20.10 or 1.1 per cent lower at US$1,845.30 an ounce. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index shed 2.67 per cent.

• Oil dropped after US inventories rose for an eighth week. Official US stockpiles increased by 16.3 million barrels, "one of the biggest increases in inventories we have seen in quite some time," according to Tariq Zahir at Tyche Capital Advisors.

Brent crude settled 20 US cents or 0.2 per cent lower at US$85.38 a barrel. The US benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, dropped 0.6 per cent to US$78.59.