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Market wrap, Tuesday, January 31

The Australian dollar continues to hover around US$0.755.

The Australian dollar continues to hover around US$0.755. Photo: Getty

Local shares have seen a continuation of yesterday’s themes as the ASX200 saw another negative day falling by 0.7 per cent.

Another afternoon rally saw the main index rebound off its lows for the day after nearly falling below 5600 points.

The Utilities and Property Trust sectors were able to etch out small gains with all other sectors in the red. Energy and Materials the worst performers each dropping 1 per cent respectively, with the big miners RIO and BHP contributing a majority of the losses in the materials.

Fortescue Metals (FMG) managed to buck the trend after announcing its December quarterly production report.

FMG was able to benefit off the recovery in iron ore prices and steady shipment figures. It also paid down an additional US$1 billion of debt.

FMG finished the day up 2.8 per cent to $6.66.

In other company news, February reporting has officially kicked off today with education provider Navitas (NVT) releasing its half year results ending December 2016.

NVT recorded a stronger than expected HY17 profit of $53.3 million. That number was boosted by one-off gains and investors took that into consideration with NVT losing 5.8 per cent to close at $4.45.

CYBG PLC (CYB), former subsidiary of NAB, released Q1 results which were mostly in line with expectations. CYB finished down 1 per cent for the day at $4.72.

Australia’s largest IVF provider Virtus Health (VRT) saw its share price tumble nearly 18 per cent as it released a trading update this morning. It reported that low cycle volumes during November 2016 and that this weakness may have a material effect on the company’s full year results compared to the previous year.

Sirtex Medical (SRX) was in a trading halt today as it received a notification of legal proceedings against the company based on alleged breaches of its disclosure obligations, misleading and deceptive conduct.

In economic news, business trading conditions grew in December to a nine-year high with the release of the NAB business conditions index.

This has seen the Aussie remain relatively steady trading around the $US0.756 mark.

3.06 billion shares were traded worth $5.85 billion with 450 trading up, 654 trading down and 395 unchanged.

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