ASX ends series of six days when health drops

Australian stocks opened the week's trading at a loss on Monday, ending a series that saw the market close in black for six consecutive sessions.

The S & P / ASX 200 index closed at 31.1 points, or 0.5 percent, lower at 5818.1, while the broader general index fell 31 points, or 0.5 percent, to 5904.8.

Health stocks were the biggest drag on the index, with CSL falling 2.4% to $ 187.52, its first loss in seven sessions.

Cochlear announced to the market on Monday that it had lost a patent infringement case in the US and damages of $ 268 million were awarded against the company.

Cochlear CEO Dig Howitt said the company was surprised by the decision, which would be attractive and that the case would take years to resolve. The disputed patent has expired and will not disrupt Cochlear's business. Its shares fell 3.8 percent to $ 172.73.

Advertising

Shares of Blackmores fell for the second consecutive session after Citigroup informed customers on Friday that the company was very expensive given the potential risk of its gains.

Citi's research team gave the health supplements company a price target of $ 100. Blackmores ended Monday's trading at 3.6 percent, at $ 122.34.

Crude oil prices continued to soften over the weekend, pushing the energy sector down on Monday. Woodside Petroleum fell 2.3 percent to $ 33.40, Oil Search fell 1.3 percent to $ 7.56, Santos fell 1.6 percent to $ 6.37, and Beach Energy closed 2.6% to $ 1.71.

Top banks led the market gains on Monday after Westpac posted cash earnings of $ 8.07 billion, in line with expectations.

ANZ led the market, rising 1.1 percent to $ 25.82, Westpac rose 0.6 percent to $ 26.65 and NAB rose 0.7 percent to $ 25.39. The Commonwealth Bank, which issued a first-quarter upgrade and maintained its AGM on Wednesday, closed down 0.5 percent to $ 67.98.

TPG Telecom closed the session 3.3 percent higher at $ 7.77. An ACCC report on Monday showed that TPG was Australia's fastest Internet service provider for the quarter and improved 2.8% over the previous quarter.

Shares of Greencross rose 18.9 percent to $ 5.40 after the veterinary and veterinary retailer advised shareholders to accept a $ 5.55 offer per share from TPG Capital. In early 2016, the company declined an offer of $ 6.75 per share from the private equity firm.

Stock Clock

Treasury Properties

After the recent 20 percent sold based on the results of 2017-18, Morgan Stanley raised its rank in Treasury Wine Estates from "equal weight" to "overweight." He said the slowdown provided a compelling entry point into a single growth story, adding that concerns about China's growth were overestimated and that multiple profit drivers available to the company were underestimated. The brokerage acknowledged that there has been slower growth in China, even though it has reached a compound annual growth rate of 18 percent in "healthy" EPS. He said there were many drivers out of China, including favorable FX winds, the launch of French and Italian portfolios, and the distribution changes in the US. The broker maintained its price target of $ 20.00, with a premium of 26.8% at the Friday closing price of $ 15.77.

What moved the market

ANZ Job ads

ANZ Australian Job Advertisements increased 0.2 percent in October, recovering from a 0.7 percent drop in the previous month. Annually, growth slowed to 3.6% this month, up from 4.7% in September. This represents the slowest annual growth for Australian job ads since April 2015. "After a few weak months, it's gratifying to see an increase in ANZ job ads in October, despite only a modest gain," said the director of Australian economy David Plank of ANZ. . "ANZ job ads have effectively been trailing sideways since the beginning of this year."

Brent crude

Crude oil prices continued to fall further on Monday, dropping to $ 72.37 a barrel, dropping to near 7% in the last six sessions. Meanwhile, crude oil WTI was trading at a six-month low of $ 62.55 on Monday. "The headlines surrounding Opec's lack of idle capacity have been replaced by fears of Iranian sanctions that did not reduce exports to zero by the time they return on Nov. 4," said RBC Capital Markets oil and gas analyst Ben Wilson. was exacerbated by production levels in the US and Russia amid a prevailing macroeconomic environment at risk. "

British pound

The British pound rose against the US dollar on Monday morning, up 0.7 percent to $ 1,304. A report in the Sunday Times The newspaper suggested that there was a breakthrough in the Brexit negotiations, with the European Union granting British PM Theresa May allowing it to keep Britain in a customs union with the EU to avoid a difficult frontier between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The pound now awaits the UK third quarter UK report. The Bank of England forecasts quarterly growth of 0.6% (or 1.5% for the year) due to strong construction and retail activity.

Central banks

Despite the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the US Federal Reserve all gathered this week, it is unlikely that there will be any change in the monetary policy of any central bank. The RBA and RBNZ are very far from moving rates, according to market projections, but the Federal Reserve is expected to raise rates in December. The RBNZ is expected to remain as cautious as at its last meeting, if not more cautious because of the soft trust of the business in the country. It is unlikely that Tuesday's RBA meeting attracted much attention, but its statement on Friday on monetary policy, when it could update some of its projections.