ASX live updates: All the latest news from company reporting season on the Australian market

Listed WA stockbroker Euroz Hartleys is in talks with unnamed parties amid speculation Bank of Montreal is looking to build a presence in Australia.

Shares in Euroz Hartleys leapt 9 per cent as the firm confirmed it was “in the early stages of discussions regarding potential opportunities within the Australian market”.

“Discussions remain confidential and incomplete,no terms or valuation have been discussed and there is no certainty that the discussions will lead to any transaction or agreement,” it said.

“As part of its continuous evaluation of opportunities, Euroz Hartleys regularly explores opportunities to create and deliver value for shareholders.”

Read the full story here.

Santos shares dropped the most in almost two months after another delay in its $30 billion takeover by an Abu Dhabi-led group.

Santos and the consortium of Abu Dhabi National Oil’s XRG unit, Abu Dhabi Development Holding and Carlyle Group have yet to reach agreement on acceptable terms of a binding scheme implementation agreement and will be unable to do so before the exclusivity period ends on Friday, the Australian gas producer said in a regulatory filing.

The stock fell as much as 3.6 per cent in Sydney.

The delay adds to uncertainty around the transaction announced in June - which also faces regulatory hurdles as Santos has assets in Australia, Papua New Guinea and the US - after the due diligence period was extended last week. The consortium told Santos that it would need at least four weeks to obtain final approvals before it can enter a binding transaction, according to Tuesday’s statement.

The XRG-led group said it is continuing to conduct due diligence, “given the scale of the transaction”, and that it would seek corporate approvals once a final agreement has been worked out.

The ending of the exclusivity period opens the door to other potential suitors. Santos and larger Australian rival Woodside Energy broke off talks over a possible combination in February 2024.

Santos on Tuesday also pushed back the release of its half-year earnings to August 25 from August 20.

Gaming giant Crown has escaped a fine after letting gamblers play pokies beyond their nominated time and spend limits.

Victoria’s gambling watchdog opted to formally censure Crown on Tuesday for breaching pre-commitment requirements at its lucrative Melbourne casino.

Twenty-two gamblers were able to continue playing a poker machine after reaching their nominated time or spend limit from December 2023 to July 21, 2024.

Another 10 gambled on casino poker machines from late December 2023 to early August 2024 by using a card linked to an account that was not in their legal name.

Read the full story here.

Macmahon has booked a 39 per cent profit boost after successfully bringing fellow listed contractor Decmil into the fold.

The Michael Finnegan-led business reported net profit after tax of $73.9 million for the 2025 financial year after bringing in $2.4 billion in revenue.

The group has also focused on paying down net debt used to fund its acquisition of formerly struggling contractor Decmil last year.

Borrowings were $162.5m, down from $236.9m in the first half and to “pre-Decmil acquisition levels”.

With acquisitions costs seemingly dealt with, the merged group has rounded up its total dividend payment for the full year to 1.5 cents per share.

Some big underground and surface mining contract wins, including over $500 million of new work in Indonesia, a $900 million contract extension at Byerwen and at $262 million worth of contracts at gold mines in Australia.

Shares in the company were up 5.5 per cent to 38c.

Australians might find it harder to get a new job with a major employment platform warning of “tough macroeconomic conditions”.

Seek released its full-year financial results today, showing job listings in Australia have fallen.

According to the job listing platform, role volumes fell 11 per cent in Australia. At the same time, candidate visits continued to rise as well as applications per ad as more Australians apply for these roles.

Seek chief executive and managing director Ian Narev warned of tougher times ahead for job seekers.

“In the near term, while labour market conditions across APAC (Asia-Pacific) are showing signs of stabilisation, our planning assumption is for employment growth to remain flat to low through FY2026,” Mr Narev said.

“In Australia, we expect unemployment to grow slightly, though a further easing of interest rates should gradually lead to labour market improvements.”

Read the full story here.

The Australian share market has slipped from record highs after a lull in overseas trading overnight.

By noon AEST, the S&P/ASX200 was down 44 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 8913.7, while the all ordinaries fell 62.1 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 9171.4.

Global markets traded sideways overnight, with Wall Street investors in a summer lull as they search for a catalyst.

The upcoming Jackson Hole Symposium, where the US Federal Reserve brings together financial minds to discuss long-term policy concerns, could offer that source of volatility, Capital.com market analyst Kyle Rodda said.

“Going into the event, the markets remain cautious,” he said.

It was mixed early trading session with five of six local sectors trading in the red by lunchtime, led by healthcare and energy while info tech led in the other direction.

Readthe full morning wrap here.

Australia’s consumer confidence surged in August after the Reserve Bank cut interest rates for the third time this year and signaled further easing is likely.

Sentiment advanced by 5.7 per cent to 98.5 points, a 3.5 year high, a Westpac survey out today showed. While pessimists persist in outweighing optimists, with a dividing line of 100, the gap is narrowing.

It has been 42 months since Australian consumers last registered a sentiment reading above 100 - the second-longest period of continuous pessimism since the survey began in 1974, behind only the early 1990s recession, said Matthew Hassan, Westpac’s head of Australian macro forecasting.

The data suggest “this long run of consumer pessimism may finally be coming to an end,” Mr Hassan said, adding that all components of the index posted gains. “Consumers appear much less anxious about their finances.”

The RBA has lowered borrowing costs by 75 basis points since the start of the year for a cash rate of 3.6 per cent. Governor Michele Bullock last week signalled a “couple more” cuts will be required to achieve the bank’s latest forecasts.

Economists see another rate reduction in November and a final one early next year, taking the terminal rate to 3.1 per cent.

The prospect of further easing “looks to have reinforced consumer expectations that mortgage interest rates are headed lower, giving a broad-based boost to sentiment,” Mr Hassan said. “Consumer attitudes towards major purchases are starting to turn positive.”

In Australia, where consumption accounts for about half of the economy, households’ attitudes toward purchases are closely monitored by policymakers.

Other key data points:

• The family finances vs a year ago sub-index jumped 6.2 per cent in August to 84.2, still pessimistic but only marginally below the long-run average of 88
• The family finances next 12 months sub-index climbed 5.4 per cent to 106.8
• The time to buy a major item sub-index rose 4.2 per cent in August to 101.7. Despite a 23 per cent gain over the last 12 months, the sub-index is well below its long-run average read of 124.
• The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Unemployment Expectations Index declined 2.4 per cent to 125.6 - a lower reading means fewer households expect unemployment to increase over the year ahead. The result is broadly consistent with a stable labour market
• The time to buy a dwelling index soared 10.5 per cent to 97.8, a four-year high and up 37 per cent on a year ago.

One of Australia’s major internet providers has been hacked.

iiNet revealed on Tuesday that it had been compromised, with an unknown third party accessing its order management system on Saturday.

The company said that most of the data breached was of a non-identifying nature and used to authenticate and activate orders for iiNet services such as NBN.

However, it admitted that a list of email addresses and phone numbers had been extracted from its system.

The list contained about 280,000 active iiNet email addresses and about 20,000 active iiNet landline phone numbers, plus inactive email addresses and numbers.

In addition, about 10,000 iiNet user names, street addresses and phone numbers and about 1700 modem set-up passwords look to have been accessed.

It said no credit card, banking details or customer ID documents (passport or driver’s licence) were hacked because such information was not held in the system.

Read the full story here.

ARB, Australia’s largest manufacturer and distributor of 4WD accessories. has lifted sales revenue 5.3 per cent to $729 million.

But profit tumbled 5 per cent to $97.5m.

However, investors will be delighted after it declared a fully franked final dividend of 35c and special dividend of 50c, taking its full-year payout to $1.19 a share - up from last year’s 69c.

ARB said sales to the Australian aftermarket were impacted by lower new vehicle sales, a key driver of the company’s sales to this category, “and inflationary pressures constraining consumer discretionary spending”.

“However, ARB’s steady Australian aftermarket sales was a solid result given that new vehicle sales of key models including the Toyota Hilux 4x4, Ford Ranger and the Isuzu D-Max were all down 17 per cent for the financial year,” it said.

“While new entrants to the Australian carpark in BYD Shark and Kia Tasman will represent an opportunity for ARB, the market is yet to see accessory demand for these two models relative to other popular pick-up models.”

Listed contractor Monadelphous has shored up an $83.7 million profit for the 2025 financial year on the back of strong construction activity and a busy energy sector.

The net result is a 34.6 per cent increase on the prior year, and spurred by a 12 per cent increase in revenue clocking in at $2.27 billion.

Monadelphous managing director Zoran Bebic said there was “robust longer-term demand” up for grabs in resources and energy markets.

He said there was “significant prospects in both construction and maintenance” and that demand for energy transition metals and Australia’s Net Zero emissions objective would also drive the next pipeline of opportunities.

Shareholders will be dished out a 39 cents per share fully franked, taking the full year dividend to 72 cents, up 24 per centon last year.