Australia Market closed flat

The Australian share market finished session virtually flat on Monday, 09 August 2021, as losses in the shares of materials, industrials, energy, consumer discretionary, and technology sectors offset gains for the financials and utilities issues.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was unchanged at 7,538.41. The broader All Ordinaries fell marginal 2.19 points, or 0.03%, to 7,804.28.

Shares of financials closed higher. Among the big four banks, Westpac, National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking gained around 1.5% each, while Commonwealth Bank rose almost 2%. Suncorp shares jumped 7.8% after announcing higher dividends or share buybacks. Suncorp revealed stronger than expected results and announced a $250 million share buyback, dividend increase and a special dividend.Meanwhile, IAG gained 4.6%, and QBE added 3.2%.

Materials stocks declined, with mining giants BHP, Rio Tinto, and Fortescue all declined, but the gold sub-sector was even deeper in the red as safe-haven gold dropped by 4% to a five-month low, with Ramelius Resources down 5.6%, Gold Road down 4.9%, and Northern Star down 3.7%.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7354 against the greenback, climbing from an earlier level around $0.7326. The Aussie fell from levels above $0.7400 following a resurgent dollar Friday on the back of strong nonfarm payrolls data.

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