AU Evening Wrap | ASX Slips Despite Gains in Woodside and BHP

• Top losers: $Johns Lyng Group Ltd (JLG.AU)$ $Lovisa Holdings Ltd (LOV.AU)$ $Deterra Royalties Ltd (DRR.AU)$

Australia's $S&P/ASX 200 (.XJO.AU)$ closed 0.2% lower at 8071.2 as bank stocks gave back some of their recent gains. The benchmark index rose modestly at the open in line with futures trading, before sinking into the red by late morning.

Lenders $ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ANZ.AU)$, $Macquarie Bank (MBLPC.AU)$, $Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AU)$, $CommBank (CBA.AU)$ and $National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB.AU)$, all of which have recently gained amid expectations of interest-rate cuts, shed between 0.2% and 1.0%. Buy-now-pay-later provider $Zip Co Ltd (ZIP.AU)$ lost 7.9% after reporting its annual result, but has still more than tripled in value so far in 2024. Commodity stocks pared the overall losses. Energy explorers rose amid higher oil prices, with $Woodside Energy Group Ltd (WDS.AU)$ adding 3.9% after reporting a 11% rise in 1H profit. Iron-ore giant $BHP Group Ltd (BHP.AU)$ added 1.25% after reporting a higher annual underlying profit.

$Coles Group Ltd (COL.AU)$ shares are set to reach their highest levels since August 2022 following a strong FY24 performance that exceeded market earnings and margin expectations. For the 53 weeks ending June 30, Coles reported a 3.2% increase in group revenue to $43.5 billion, a slight 0.2% rise in EBITDA to $3.64 billion, and a 1% decrease in EBIT to $2.04 billion. Underlying NPAT grew by 4.1% to $1.21 billion, and the total dividend was 68 cents per share. This performance surpassed Citi analysts' forecasts, which anticipated FY24 revenue of $43.4 billion, underlying NPAT of $1.08 billion, and a total dividend of 69.5 cents per share.