More positive than gloomy financial results have dragged the Australian share market into positive territory, although serious concerns about the iron ore price loom large.
Jim Chalmers raised the alarm about a looming $3bn hole in the public purse should the ore price stay below Treasury forecasts, and on Monday the market responded in kind.
While the S&P/ASX 200 rose 9.3 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 7980.4 and a two-week high, the materials and energy sectors lost more than half a point each.
Four of the 11 sectors were in the green.
Steel maker BlueScope’s full-year results on Monday flag a 20 per cent drop in annual profit, and say the company is paying three-times more for gas here than in the US, and double for electricity.
BlueScope is expecting a substantial drop in underlying earnings for the first half of the current financial year, saying they will likely be in the range of $350m to $420m.
BlueScope lost 3 per cent on Monday’s trading, closing at $19.89. Mineral Resources, down 30 per cent on this time last year, copped a 3.7 per cent loss.
The price of iron ore fell 7 per cent in the past week and reached its lowest level since 2022 on Thursday.
The four largest companies on the materials index – BHP, Fortescue, Rio Tinto and James Hardie Industries – all took losses on Monday. The sector dropped 0.59 per cent.
