ASX reporting season: All the latest news as listed companies report their results to investors

Shares in WA-based civil and mining engineering outfit NRW Holdings have been place into a trading halt.

“The securities of NRW Holdings will be suspended from quotation immediately under Listing Rule 17.2, at the request of NWH, pending the release of an announcement,” it said this morning.

The company on Wednesday said it had delayed the release of its half-year financial results while it evaluates the status of a mining contract serving Indian tycoon Sanjeev Gupta’s collapsed Whyalla steelworks.

The steel plant was put into the hands of administrators from insolvency firm KordaMentha on Wednesday after the South Australian Government pushed through legislation allowing it to act on hundreds of millions of dollars in debts owed by Mr Gupta’s GFG Alliance

NRW mines iron ore feeding the project under contract for GFG.

Shares last changed hands for $3.285.

Monadelphous has added about $400 million to its project pipeline just three days after warning investors that the pace of new work being awarded was showing signs of slowing.

The contractor helmed by Zoran Bebic on Friday detailed five separate packages of new work.

This includes undertaking “structural remediation works” at “a number” of Rio Tinto’s WA iron ore mines, with the job scheduled to be done in early 2029.

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Perth Airport has just recorded its biggest-ever month for passenger movements, including a new international traveller benchmark.

The airport today revealed 1,564,605 million people travelling through its terminals in January.

And CEO Jason Water said the numbers showed no signs of slowing down.

“In December last year we set new records in both interstate and international passenger numbers,” Mr Waters said.

“Those records have barely lasted a month with January seeing a record 561,156 interstate passengers, along with a record 515,581 international passengers.

“It’s the first time we have pushed past the 500,000 international passenger mark in a single month.”

Mr Waters attributed to surge to more holiday travel options for local jetsetters and a lift in overseas guests choosing visit WA.

He said the airport was on track to hit its forecast of 20 million passengers by 2030.

“This makes our multibillion-dollar investment program to deliver a new runway, new terminal facilities, two multi-storey carparks with major road upgrades, and our first hotel a critical investment in WA’s future,“ he said.

Engineering, construction and management firm Bechtel is now providing advice to support the delivery of the projects.

The S&P/ASX200 is just 7.4 points down after the first few hours of trade, with half the 11 secotors that make up the index posting solid gains.

The market had dropped to 8315.4 by 9.45am following yesterday’s horror show that saw a 1.1 per cent plunge.

Utilities and mining added more tan one per cent while health care and energy stocks eked out marginal gains.

Real estate stocks were up, largely driven by the $2.6b offer lobbed for Nine Entertaiment-controlled Domain, which skyrockets almost 40 per cent to above the offer price of $4.20 a share.

REA Group, the name behind Domain’s bigger rival realestate.com.au, was the markets worst performer, down 10 per cent.

Consumer discretionary stocks took the biggest it, down almost 2 per cent.

Bega Cheese, Block, Guzman Y Gomez and News Corp rounded out the top five loser’s for the day so far.

Among the winners were Nine Entertaiment, Telix, Yancoal Ausralia, QBE Insurance and Deep Yellow.

Gold climbed to a new record as geopolitical tensions underpinned demand for haven assets, with traders looking past signals the Federal Reserve is in no rush to cut interest rates.

Bullion hit an all-time high of $US2954.83 an ounce overnight, surpassing the previous peak reached Wednesday. There’s been growing fears that President Donald Trump could abandon American support for Ukraine after Russia invaded its neighbor in 2022.

The US leader on Wednesday said on social media that Volodymyr Zelenskiy had “better move fast” to reach a peace deal “or he is not going to have a country left.”

The precious metal has hit successive records this year, after climbing 27 per cent in 2024, amid mounting concerns over Trump’s consistently disruptive trade and geopolitical agendas. Goldman Sachs. this week raised its year-end target to $US3100 an ounce, saying that stronger-than-expected central-bank buying would be a key driver for prices.

Elsewhere, investors were parsing the latest Fed minutes, which reiterated US policymakers’ cautious stance on interest rates amid stubborn inflation and economic uncertainties. Lower borrowing costs tend to benefit bullion, as it doesn’t pay interest.

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An attempt to wind back penalty rates has been opposed by the Federal Government, in a bid to protect workers’ wages and rights.

Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt will file a submission to the Fair Work Commission in response to a proposal that would allow retailers to take away penalty rates, meal breaks and overtime pay for a 25 per cent pay rise.

“We’re for pay rises, but we don’t think that minimum safety net conditions ... should be stripped away for what will end up being a fairly small pay rise for low-paid workers,” he told ABC on Friday.

“If anyone thinks that Woolies and Coles and the other big retailers are doing this to pay their workers more ... well, I’ve got a Sydney Harbour Bridge to sell you.”

While some workers may prefer this offer, Senator Watt says negotiations should take place in a “safer, more supervised context” like enterprise bargaining.

About one million Australian workers are covered by the retail award, and many earn about $54,000 a year.

The Australian Retailers Association, which filed the original submission, claimed changes could help simplify General Retail Industry Award.

“But you can simplify award without cutting workers pay,” Senator Watt said.

“We need to remember that the workers we’re talking about here are not highly paid people ... (they) don’t have enormous bargaining power, and we need to preserve those minimum conditions through our safety net.

“We want to see wages grow in this country, not go backwards, and we’re prepared to step in and try to protect penalty rates and those other conditions.”

Australia’s biggest industry superannuation provider has been fined $27 million for failing to notify members of their duplicate accounts.

Federal Court Justice Lisa Hespe on Friday made the ruling against AustralianSuper, finding it contravened the Superannuation Industry Act.

The company admitted that between July 2013 and June 2022, more than 90,000 of its members had multiple accounts that should have been merged.

As a result, those members incurred about $69m in losses through multiple administration fees, insurance premiums and lost investment earnings.

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Mexican-themed restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez has swung to a $7.3 million profit in the first half, beating estimates as it opened 19 new restaurants globally.

The company, which listed on the ASX in June, recorded a 27 per cent lift in revenue to $212.4m, with net profit at $8.1m, an improvement from the $4.3m loss recorded a year ago.

“GYG’s first-half 2025 performance and growth in sales and earnings showcases our guest’s love for our food, but also the strong execution of our strategy and our unwavering commitment to exceptional guest experience,” founder and co-CEO Steven Marks said.

“We finished the half with 239 restaurants globally, opening 19 new restaurants (16 in Australia).

“We have more than 100 future restaurants in our pipeline, all in AAA locations, positioning us well for solid expansion in the coming years.”

The Australian segment - which also includes restaurants in Singapore and Japan - achieved 9.4 per cent comparative sales growth, driving $573m in sales.

It expects to exceed its full-year profit prospectus forecast of $6m based on the strong progress made in the half. No dividend was declared.

Despite the strong results, Guzman shares were down 6.6 per cent to $42 in early trade.

Michele Bullock has rejected suggestions made by some economists that the rate cut was a “lay-down misere” and told the committee that it was the bank’s decision to bring in cameras to record the deliberations.

Some commentators had opined that the bank was always going to cut rates as a result of Government pressure, and the presence of cameras during the meeting was evidence that a decision was baked in.

“Who made the decision to bring the cameras into the board meeting on Tuesday?” asked Garth Hamilton, LNP MP from Queensland.

“We did,” Ms Bullock said.

“It was the last, final meeting of the Reserve Bank board. It was an historic occasion, and we felt that it was appropriate to mark that by just having some footage of the last ever meeting of the Reserve Bank board.”

Mr Hamilton asked: “Quite a few commentators took the view that the photos were, I guess, evidence of the rate cut being confirmed leading into it. But did you consider that as a risk, and how that might be perceived?”

“No, because we hadn’t made a decision,” Ms Bullock replied.

Asked who would be the most affected by rate cuts, Ms Bullock was at pains to point out the sector which had been most affected in the economy had been those on low incomes who were renting.

“They’ve seen a massive increase in rents, and they’ve also experienced massive inflation. So they’re not going to necessarily benefit from the decrease in interest rates. They are going to benefit as inflation starts to come down,” Ms Bullock said. “The group often gets forgotten, I think, and I just want to make sure that people understand. They are people that have really been hurt very hard.”

Ms Bullock said that the housing supply imbalance had been a core issue behind rent inflation and that it would take some time for the lag effect of interest rate cuts to flow through to new construction.

“We’re not going to suddenly see more homes being built tomorrow, because the cash rate was cut on Tuesday,” Ms Hunter added.