ASX Large Caps: APM sinks 40pc and Liontown 10pc; BHP also down after downgrading guidance

ASX falls further today as rate cut bets slashed
APM Human Services down 40pc, Liontown 10pc
BHP Group down after disappointing production guidance

Aussie shares fell further by -0.6% on Thursday following a weak lead from Wall Street.

Overnight, rates sensitive stocks led the selloff in New York after a stronger than expected US retail sales print dashed hopes of a Fed rate cut in March.

European markets also edged lower after a strong print in UK consumer price index, which rose from 3.9% in November to 4% in December.

Meanwhile, commodities were mostly down as the US dollar gained more ground. Iron ore prices fell around 2%, while the gold price retreated by another -1%.

On the ASX today, energy, gold lithium miners, and real estate stocks led the laggards.

Local traders also reacted to the ABS’s labour report, which shows that unemployment in Australia remained at 3.9% in December, despite 65,000 jobs lost during the month.

Australian employment fell by 65,100 people in December. So why didn’t the unemployment rate fall?

Well, largely because Australia’s participation rate fell by 0.4 percentage points. Excluding the pandemic, it was the largest monthly change since April 2001 #ausbiz pic.twitter.com/KyRZiYWrVu

— Callam Pickering (@CallamPickering) January 18, 2024

Across the region, most Asian stock markets fell as traders scrapped March rate cut bets.

Samsung shares in Seoul rose just 1% despite the company unveiling its “Galaxy AI” as a core feature of its new Samsung Galaxy S24 series smartphones.

Looking ahead to tonight in the US, the weekly new unemployment claims are due out, together with the December housing starts.

Elsewhere, the European Central Bank (ECB) will release the minutes of its December monetary policy meeting.

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Code Name Price % Change Volume Market Cap IFT Infratil Limited 9.57 2.24 33,806 $7,792,833,026 MEZ Meridian Energy 5.24 1.75 21,994 $6,520,284,030 NHF NIB Holdings Limited 7.64 1.87 442,928 $3,632,075,663 BFL Bsp Financial Group 5.60 1.82 41,000 $2,569,709,885 AMP AMP Limited 0.94 1.62 6,798,678 $2,535,499,836 GNE Genesis Energy Ltd 2.36 1.72 28,065 $2,493,165,452 EMR Emerald Res NL 3.25 2.69 1,501,752 $1,974,375,998 BAP Bapcor Limited 5.36 2.00 751,084 $1,781,915,625 360 Life360 Inc. 7.07 3.06 380,957 $1,402,646,981 MAD Mader Group Limited 7.18 2.50 51,805 $1,400,000,000 HLI Helia Group Limited 4.55 2.25 840,100 $1,338,580,848

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Boral Ltd (BLD) was up 0.7% after announcing the resignation of CFO Belinda Shaw. Stefan Camphausen will now join Boral as CFO, bringing his considerable background as a CFO of complex industrial organisations in Australia and in Europe.

Infratil (ASX:IFT) rose 2% after revealing that its portfolio company, CDC, has entered into over 110MW of new customer contracts from new and existing customers across Australia and New Zealand.

Combined with the additional contracts secured throughout the last 12 months, CDC’s total contracted capacity has increased by over 200MW over the past 12 months.

BIG CAP LOSERS

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Code Name Price % Change Volume Market Cap APM APM Human Services 0.81 -39.06 18,832,738 $1,215,266,078 LTR Liontown Resources 1.22 -10.29 39,545,352 $3,293,899,267 SNZ Summerset Grp Hldgs 9.95 -5.87 2,470 $2,476,354,208 CRN Coronado Global Res 1.62 -4.99 1,777,547 $2,858,353,610 CMW Cromwell Prop 0.38 -4.43 1,516,635 $1,034,452,346 CIA Champion Iron Ltd 7.71 -4.34 1,134,933 $4,177,129,150 STX Strike Energy Ltd 0.45 -4.26 6,980,184 $1,345,246,154 IGO IGO Limited 7.17 -3.89 5,126,898 $5,649,217,885 NIC Nickel Industries 0.59 -3.69 5,070,232 $2,614,344,027 WPR Waypoint REIT 2.27 -3.40 1,342,900 $1,578,768,885 ARF Arena REIT. 3.56 -3.26 338,403 $1,302,277,738 RGN Region Group 2.13 -3.18 1,932,165 $2,556,023,026 DOW Downer EDI Limited 4.04 -3.12 932,685 $2,800,462,241 CHC Charter Hall Group 11.18 -2.95 966,350 $5,448,927,732 VCX Vicinity Centres 1.93 -2.89 6,446,401 $9,059,027,962 SGP Stockland 4.29 -2.83 5,234,696 $10,527,427,029 PXA Pexagroup 10.45 -2.79 340,284 $1,907,033,510

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International human services group, APM Human Services (ASX:APM) fell almost -40% after issuing a first half profit warning.

The company said its group forecast preliminary and unaudited revenue for the first half is $1.14 billion, underlying EBITDA is $148 million, and underlying net profit of $55 million.

Shares in lithium play Liontown (ASX:LTR) sank -10% today after NYSE-listed lithium giant Albemarle reportedly sold its 4% stake overnight in the Gina Rinehart-backed lithium group.

The shares were traded at $1.26 each, marking a 7.4% reduction from LTR’s closing price of $1.36/share on Wednesday, with the sale coming as Albemarle outlined cost-cutting measures to “re-phase its organic growth investments and optimise its cost structure in response to changing end-market conditions, particularly in the lithium value chain”.

BHP Group (ASX:LBHP) fell almost -1.5% after disappointing investors with its its Q2 update this morning.

Iron ore production was 65.8mt for the quarter, up 4% from previous quarter but down 2% from the pcp.

Nickel output grew by 11% and 4% respectively. Copper production rose by 3% and 7%. Metallurgical coal output dropped by 18% and 17%, while Energy coal production rose by 35% and 36%.

Importantly, BHP has lowered its full year guidance by 5Mt – 6Mt, with the new expected total somewhere around 23Mt – 25Mt.

Alumina (ASX:AWC) fell almost -2% after its JV partner Alcoa reported a $US150m December quarter loss, and $US651m loss for the full year.

The company said the metallurgical alumina market remains in tight supply, compounded by recent production cuts in China, and is expected to remain tight following the full curtailment of the Kwinana refinery in 2Q24.

Ampol (ASX:ALD) fell -2.5% after reporting that its December quarter refinery volumes fell to 1.428ML from 1.589ML for the December quarter 2022.

The Lytton Refinery volumes for the fourth quarter totalled 1,428 million litres compared with 1,580 million litres in the pcp.

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