AU Morning Wrap: ASX Slips; Boral Rallies Over 6%

U.S. stocks climbed Friday, notching a winning week, led by the $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$'s best day in more than five months.

The tech-heavy index jumped 2%, its biggest one-day percentage gain since May 26. The $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ rose 1.6%. The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ added nearly 400 points, or 1.2%. All three indexes finished the week higher, with the Nasdaq up 2.4%.

The benchmark $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ rose 0.1 per cent, or 6.8 points to 6983.3 at market open, following Wall Street's lead after a surprise rally across indexes in the United States on Friday, led by some of the largest technology groups.

$ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ANZ.AU)$: ANZ dropped 3.3 per cent after it declared a final dividend worth 94¢, partially franked, payable on December 22.

$Ramsay Health Care Ltd (RHC.AU)$: Ramsay Health Care slipped 0.3 per cent. It confirmed reports that the company and Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby have agreed to sell their hospital unit to Columbia Asia Healthcare for $1.9 billion.

$TPG Telecom Ltd (TPG.AU)$: TPG Telecom tumbled 7.5 per cent and was the worst performing stock on the ASX 200 after it said its ceased discussions with Vocus to purchase TPG’s Vision Network and other enterprise assets.

$Boral Ltd (BLD.AU)$: Boral was one of the best performing stocks at the open, rallying 7.9 per cent after upgrading its financial year 2024 earnings guidance, with underlying earnings before interest and tax expected to be in the range of $300 million to $330 million.

$Metcash Ltd (MTS.AU)$: Metcash edged up 0.1 per cent. The retailer announced that it was increasing its ownership of Total Tools to 100 per cent, up from 85 per cent.