Here are the headlines from the S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX: XJO)(ASX: XJO) and Australian finance circles on Friday morning.
But first, here are the data points:
Australian Dollar ($A) (AUDUSD): 73.82 US cents
Dow Jones (DJI): flat
Oil (WTI): $US69 per barrel
Gold: $US1,217 per ounce
Australian Investing News
Making finance news, global biotechnology company ResMed Inc. (CHESS) (ASX: RMD) released its fourth quarter report to the market revealing a 12% increase in revenue and 24% growth in profit, in-line with analyst estimates.
ResMed’s CEO Mick Farrell, said, “We closed out the year with strong performance across all aspects of our business, from solid top-line revenue growth – driven by geographically balanced results across our entire portfolio of offerings – to continued improvements in operating leverage, which has resulted in double-digit bottom-line growth.”
SCA Property Group (ASX: SCP) announced the acquisition of the Sturt mall in Wagga Wagga for $73 million, representing a yield of 6.3%. SCA noted that Kmart and Coles are the mall’s key tenants.
AFT Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: AFT) released its 2018 annual meeting presentation. “Our headline numbers show an increase in operating revenues of 16% to $80.1m with additional licensing income of $1.8m,” Chairman David Flacks said. “Our largest market is Australia where we saw the most significant growth from $37.1m in FY17 to $49.2m in FY18, a 33% increase.”
Also making headlines, overnight Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) became the first US company to be worth $US1 trillion. Apple’s share price has been rising since it released its latest quarterly results earlier in the week, which showed the company sold 41 million iPhones last quarter.
