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

GR Engineering has cranked up its final dividend after a 10 per cent increase in annual profit to $34.2 million.

Revenue rose 13 per cent to $479m, boosted by work including Vault Minerals’ King of the Hills gold operations in WA and the Kainantu gold project in Papua New Guinea.

The board declared a 12c-a-share final dividend, up from 10c previously.

GR Engineering will provide earnings guidance for the 2026 financial year at its annual meeting in November.

It shares closed 1.6 per cent better at $4.48.

A Federal Court judge has refused to set a deadline for the Environment Minister to finalise an Aboriginal Heritage claim over the Burrup Peninsula industrial zone, despite acknowledging the process had taken too long.

It follows an application for Aboriginal heritage protections over the precinct, which includes Woodside’s Karratha Gas Plant, Perdaman’s fertiliser project and Yara’s amonnia facility.

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Bendigo Bank has called out a strong rise in its customer numbers as the regional bank reported an expected loss for the 2025 financial year.

Bendigo said customer numbers grew 11 per cent to 2.9 million over the 12 months, helping lift deposits 6.6 per cent and lending 6.3 per cent.

The lender recorded a $97.1m annual loss after last week flagging a goodwill impairment.

In a better measure of its underlying performance, cash earnings were 8.4 per cent lower at $514.6m after better growth and margins in the second half.

Bendigo’s first-half results were hurt by what the bank said was margin pressure from a significant increase in demand for its products.

The board held the final dividend unchanged at 33 cents.

Bendigo shares were 2.7 per cent at $13.34 as at 11am.

Australian shares have reset their intraday record but handed back most of the day’s gains.

The S&P/ASX200 finished Monday up 16 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 8983.4, as the broader All Ordinaries edged 21.5 points higher, or 0.23 per cent, to 9255.8.

The top-200 hit a fresh intraday peak of 9054.5 in early trade, but quickly reversed as buyers ran out of steam and opted to take profits instead.

Five of 11 local sectors finished higher, with materials rallying 2.9 per cent thanks to help from large-cap miners, while the heavyweight financial segment fell one per cent as funds rotated out of Australia’s pricey bank stocks.

The Australian dollar is buying 64.94 US cents, up from 64.19 US cents on Friday at 5pm, after the greenback slumped on higher expectations of incoming interest rate cuts in the United States.

Adrian Black, AAP.

PLS has slumped to its first loss in four years, yet the miner’s boss is cautiously optimistic after seeing the benchmark price for its lithium product surpass $US1000 per tonne during an auction.

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Australian oil and gas giant Santos has agreed for a second time to extend the exclusive due diligence window for Middle Eastern energy behemoth ADNOC in a major development to the closely watched takeover saga.

Santos announced the second extension on Monday morning, notifying investors it would now give the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company until September 19 to formalise its offer.

“On August 24, the XRG consortium again confirmed it has not found anything in due diligence that would lead it to withdraw its indicative proposal,” the company said.

“The consortium has requested an extension of the exclusivity period to conclude due diligence and to allow the consortium to obtain all necessary approvals to enter into a binding transaction.”

On August 11, Santos announced it would extend the process to August 22.

ADNOC lobbed a $30bn takeover bid for Santos in June and Santos agreed to the company’s “indicative proposal” or initial offer.

Under the deal, XRG, an ADNOC subsidiary, would acquire all of Santos’ shares for a cash price of $8.89, which represents a 28 per cent premium on the $6.96 closing price of the company’s stock before the announcement.

The due diligence period gives XRG exclusive access to Santos’ confidential information as it prepares for a final decision.

But Santos, a $25bn company, is a jewel in Australia’s corporate crown and a major domestic energy producer.

The prospect of foreign control of parts of the country’s energy system has triggered caution from policymakers.

Duncan Evans, NewsWire

Shares in Perenti rose after the contractor hit and exceeded guidance for all its key metrics.

Net profit after tax was higher by 29 per cent on the prior year to $183 million, buttressed by revenues of $3.49 billion, up 4 per cent. It expects to at least maintain that revenue or aim for an increase to $3.65b in the 2026 financial year.

Financials were also boosted by the sale of $92 million worth of underground mining equipment to its client in Botswana.

Chief executive Mark Norwell said record free cashflows of $195m, excluding the equipment sale, and profit lift allowed for a higher final dividend of 4.25c per share.

Perenti stock was higher by 6.46 per cent to $2.22.

WA drilling tech firm Imdex has lifted after tax profit 70 per cent to $55 million.

Chief executive Paul House said the stronger result stemmed from a stronger performance in its drill sit technologies business, which provides high-precision downhole sensors and directional drilling tools.

It comes during what he said was still a “challenging” market for exploration.

“We are greatly encouraged by our fourth quarter record revenue performance. That said, we remain cautious about the broader market outlook,” Mr House told the ASX.

Total revenue for the 2025 financial year was off 3 per cent to $431m.

“The downward pressures that have dampened exploration activity over the past three years persist, although they are increasingly being counterbalanced by the upward forces driving demand for metals.”

A 1c per share final dividend was declared.

Recently merged Ramelius Resources is keeping up the trend of rocketing profits for miners of the yellow metal.

Its bottom line for the 2025 financial year more than doubled from $216.6 million to $474.2m, as realised prices for an ounce of gold rose 32 per cent to $3963.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were 81 per cent higher to $818.6m.

It comes following an aggressive year of growth for the Mark Zeptner-led miner. Ramelius sealed the long-anticipated acquisition of explorer Spartan Resources in July for $2.5b.

With Spartan’s Never Never deposit and idled Dalgaranga processing mill set to come into the fold, Ramelius wants to hit a 500,000ounce per annum production target within the next five years.

Adelaide-based Santos has posted a 36 per cent drop in profit to $US564 million for the first six months of the year.

Boss Kevin Gallagher said the performance was still “strong” and pledged structural savings of $US150m annually going forward.

“Today’s results demonstrate the reliability of Santos to generate strong cash flow from operations, deliver major development projects successfully and provide competitive, reliable shareholder returns through disciplined capital allocation,” he said.

“Our low-cost operating model continues to underpin the resilience of our business in our continual fight against inflation throughout the commodity price cycle.

“Another strong cash flow year from our long-life gas assets has enabled us to deliver shareholder returns while investing in our Barossa and Pikka development projects, which will bring new production online this year and next.”

There was potential good news for WA, as the business will undertake appraisal work on a potential development at the Bedout Basin — which would include the Dorado oil field.

The company also took a $US119m impairment on its operations in PNG.