Australia: Shares rise as upbeat earnings counter BHP slide

[BENGALURU] Australian shares rose on Wednesday as a handful of upbeat earnings reports offset a sharp drop in miner BHP after it announced the sale of its petroleum assets to Woodside Petroleum.

The S&P/ASX 200 inched 0.1 per cent higher to 7,522.7 points by 0100 GMT. The benchmark closed 0.9 per cent lower on Tuesday.

Financials were up over 1 per cent, with the "big four" banks gaining between 0.5 per cent and 1.7 per cent.

Leading gains on the benchmark was Domino's Pizza Enterprises, which rose as much as 4.3 per cent to a record high after a near 33 per cent surge in annual profit.

Payment solutions firm EML Payments jumped as much as 5.9 per cent after it reported a 60 per cent surge in fiscal 2021 revenue and forecast 2022 sales to rise further.

A near 7 per cent slide in BHP offset those gains after the miner announced the sale of its petroleum business to Woodside Petroleum on Tuesday.

BHP was on track for its worst day since May 2020, while Woodside also slid more than 4 per cent.

A subindex of miners shed over 2 per cent and extended losses to a fourth consecutive session, weighed down by BHP as well as a dip in commodity prices.

New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 rose 0.6 per cent to 12,712.28 points, despite the government's decision to impose a week-long lockdown on Tuesday to halt the potential spread of the Delta coronavirus variant.

Healthcare products distributor EBOS Group rose 3.5 per cent on the back of a jump in annual profit.

REUTERS