Reporting season: All the latest news from companies releasing financial results to the ASX today

Gas explorer Equus Energy has finally signed its first sales agreement, and will provide the equivalent of 5 per cent of WA’s domestic gas market to US aluminium giant Alcoa.

Equus on Friday announced a long-awaited 10-year agreement for supply of 50 terajoules per day.

The $63.5 million listed company said the agreement satisfies its domestic gas supply commitment under the State’s domestic gas reservation policy.

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Australia’s share market is on track for its worst week since April, after what has been a tough five sessions for heavily weighted banks and miners.

The S&P/ASX200 fell 65.5 points by midday, down 0.71 per cent, to 9123.

The local bourse shrugged off an overnight Wall Street session that saw the benchmark index close at a record high, which came as US interest rate-hike fears continued to ease and as the White House continued to shift its Iran strategy.

“Oil prices eased as markets appear to be taking comfort from President Trump’s strategic pivot away from a military campaign towards putting maximum economic pressure on Iran, which is likely to be a slower process implying less volatility,” Westpac economist Mantas Vanagas said.

Brent crude slipped below $US87 to its lowest price since Monday, but it wasn’t enough to boost Australia’s materials sector, which tumbled more than three per cent as gold and copper prices came off recent highs.

Shares in BHP, Australia’s largest company, tumbled 3.8 per cent to $61.05 ahead of its full-year results due next Tuesday.

Gold stocks were also heavy, as the precious metal fell for a second day to $US4319 an ounce, the pullback nabbing roughly a third of its recent 10 per cent rally.

The financials sector edged towards its second gain for the week, but was headed for a nearly 3 per cent slump since Monday, after Westpac, ANZ and CommBank financial reports all flagged double-digit drops in home-loan applications.

Earnings season continued to inject volatility into the market, as Baby Bunting soared more than 15 per cent after record high margins lifted its full-year pro-forma, post-tax net profit by a third to $16.1 million.

Half a million Australian homes, or about 4 per cent of the total, have installed a residential battery under a government program that is transforming one of the world’s most volatile power markets.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced the crossing of the threshold this morning in an Instagram post, less than 14 months after the Federal Government rolled out a popular subsidy program for home batteries.

“Every battery means less pressure on the grid, which means less expensive gas at night, which means cheaper wholesale prices for everyone,” Bowen said.

Batteries are helping to offset the rapid rise in intermittent generation capacity that is challenging the grid and contributed to an unprecedented failure of the main power market in 2022.

“Reaching 500,000 installed solar batteries is a massive moment for Australia’s energy transition,” David McElrea, chief executive of renewable energy industry lobby group Smart Energy Council, said.

“Every single one of these 500,000 batteries represents a household taking control of their energy future while strengthening our national power network.”

Meanwhile, utilities are looking to benefit from the increase in household batteries to co-ordinate them into so-called virtual power plants that can help balance the grid.

Origin Energy said on Thursday that it has connected more than 400,000 homes and businesses into its Loop VPP, increasing its size to more than 1.5 gigawatts.

Baby Bunting’s turnaround strategy is finally starting to bear fruit, with the infant goods retailer reporting record sales of $556 million for the year to June 28.

The pro forma result was up 6.5 per cent on the previous year, which helped to drive up net profit almost 34 per cent to $16.1m.

On a statutory basis, profit was 17.5 per cent higher at $11.2m.

CEO Mark Teperson said rising interest rates and elevated fuel prices weighed on consumer spending through the second half, impacting some higher-priced prams and car safety categories.

“However, even in this more challenging consumer environment we delivered net profit after tax growth of 54 per cent in the second half, reflecting the underlying strength of the business,” he said.

“Our Store of the Future program remains the clearest proof of our strategy at work. We undertook 12 refurbishments during the year, and we now have a refurbished fleet of 15 stores, and the refurbished stores delivered 18 per cent sales growth in FY26 since re-opening.”

Gross margin came in at a record 41.2 per cent, supported by continued growth in exclusive and private label ranges which now represent more than half of our total sales.

Online sales grew by 16.7 per cent to now represent just over a quarter of total sales.

Warehouse and supply chain savings offset higher costs for promoting new stores and wage inflation.

Baby Bunting plans to complete another 10 to 12 refurbishments in FY27, with five to six expected to be completed in the first half.

Sales for the first six weeks of the new financial year are up 6.1 per cent, or 4.3 per cent on a comparable basis, mainly thanks to higher sales in New Zealand.

NRW has bagged a civil works contract in south-east Queensland.

The WA-headquartered firm’s subsidiary Golding will collect $130 million for work on Stockland Development’s Yarrabilba and Shoreline master planned communities.

At Shoreline, Golding will deliver three major work packages, including the upgrade of a road with a new signalised intersection and bridge, along with subdivision and associated infrastructure works south-east of Brisbane.

When all stages are completed, Shoreline is expected to become home to 10,000 people and 3000 dwellings.

Work is due to be completed by next July.

At Yarrabilba, the contractor will deliver subdivision and associated infrastructure works at a site 4km south of Logan Village. Yarrabilba is expected to accommodate more than 45,000 residents in about 17,000 dwellings.

“Since we commenced working in Yarrabilba in October 2017, we have delivered more than 3200 residential and commercial lots, providing necessary support to the Queensland housing market,” said NRW boss Jules Pemberton.

QBE Insurance will pay out a dividend of 33c a share after reporting a net profit of just over $US1 billion ($1.42b) for the the first half of its financial year.

Net cost of catastrophe claims reduced to $US445 million, or 4.7 per cent of net insurance revenue, down from $US479m a year earlier.

The result was below the first-half allowance of $US517m and helped to deliver the $US1.033b net profit.

Gross written premium rose 6 per cent compared to a year earlier to $US15.137b.

AustralianSuper has lifted its substantial holding in Qantas, jumping from 6.29 per cent of the Flying Kangaroo’s register to 7.32 per cent.

It now holds just under 111 million shares, valued at $1.114 billion at yesterday’s cloisng price of $10.07.

The super giant’s stake was lifted between May 18 and Tuesday.

The airline’s stock is down almost 2 per cent for the past month, and 3.4 per cent for the past six months.

Qantas, which has a market capitalisation of $15.23b, is due to report its full-year results on August 27.

The S&P 500 has notched a record-high close, fuelled by advances in Sandisk and other heavyweight technology stocks, as tame producer price inflation data supported expectations the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates at its September meeting.

Memory chip makers Sandisk and Micron Technology surged 13.7 per cent and 4.2 per cent respectively while Microsoft added almost 1.0 per cent and Meta Platforms rose 2.8 per cent.

Strong forecasts in recent weeks from companies including Microsoft and Amazon have reduced investors’ concerns about massive spending on AI data centres.

“The AI earnings-driven tech boom continues,” said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors in New York.

“It’s an earnings boom, not a bubble.”

The S&P 500 climbed 0.65 per cent to end the session at 7798.99 points - exceeding its record high close last Friday - while the Nasdaq gained 0.81 per cent to 26,803.03 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.13 per cent to 53,839.99 points.

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There was plenty of news to digest from reporting season yesterday.

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