ASX Large Caps: AGL Energy's worst day since 2007 drags ASX 200 lower

ASX slipped 0.50% on Thursday
Utilities sector was dragged down by AGL’s earnings
All big four banks raised mortgage rates

The ASX slipped half a percent today, dragged down by AGL Energy (ASX:AGL)’s 10% drop, the stock’s worst day since 2007.

AGL sank after reporting an interim bottom-line loss of more than $1 billion while core profit halved to $87m, missing estimates.

The company said the result reflects the impact of plant outages in July, the prolonged Loy Yang Unit 2 major outage caused by a generator rotor defect, and the closure of Liddell Unit 3.

AGL’s new guidance for full year underlying EBITDA is now between $1.25 ~ $1.38 billion, after reporting $1.15 and $1.45 billion previously.

Real estate stocks were also laggards on Thursday, as Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX:CLW) dropped 0.65% despite affirming its guidance of 28¢ per share.

Coal mining stocks were sold as coal prices continue to fall amid a warmer than expected northern hemisphere winter.

The Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) announced it will lift its home loan variable interest rates by 0.25% pa, effective 17 February.

In addition, the bank will increase the interest rates across a number of its savings products, by up to 0.75% p.a.

The CBA joined the other 3 banks (Westpac, ANZ and NAB) in increasing home loan rates by the full 25bp as announced by the RBA earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Wall Street was rattled overnight by comments from Fed Chair of New York John Williams who reminded investors that higher rates may still be needed if financial conditions loosen.

“We still have work to do on raising rates,” Williams said.

“That still seems a very reasonable view of what we’ll need to do this year in order to get supply and demand in balance and bring inflation down.”

Williams also reiterated that if the situation changes, the Fed can move faster than 25bp moves.

Looking ahead to tonight’s session, US initial jobless claims data are due to be released.

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
IEL	Idp Education Ltd	31.78	2%	286,080	$8,664,606,248
MCY	Mercury NZ Limited	5.69	3%	10,151	$7,623,043,791
GNE	Genesis Energy Ltd	2.62	4%	25,493	$2,664,532,768
ORA	Orora Limited	2.925	2%	2,670,708	$2,426,159,637
CHN	Chalice Mining Ltd	6.55	2%	1,629,816	$2,424,319,929
DEG	De Grey Mining	1.455	3%	1,652,873	$2,209,051,185
CEN	Contact Energy Ltd	7.13	2%	119	$1,749,745,027
WLE	WAM Leaders Limited	1.605	2%	380,381	$1,735,401,165
LFS	Latitude Group	1.435	4%	32,147	$1,434,119,236
ELD	Elders Limited	8.99	2%	1,490,060	$1,381,688,148
NWH	NRW Holdings Limited	2.88	1%	494,884	$1,275,709,625
IMD	Imdex Limited	2.51	2%	496,810	$1,191,371,886
PWH	Pwr Holdings Limited	11.6	2%	140,313	$1,140,320,662
OBL	Omni Bridgeway Ltd	3.73	2%	266,032	$1,018,559,784
GEM	G8 Education Limited	1.24	3%	1,725,582	$1,016,868,378
WBT	Weebit Nano Ltd	5.98	3%	882,450	$1,003,644,142

Best performing stocks were:

Mercury NZ (ASX:MCY) rose 3.5% on no news.

IDP Education (ASX:IEL) was up 2% on no news.

BIG CAP LOSERS

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
AGL	AGL Energy Limited.	7.13	-10%	11,519,667	$5,341,613,030
MAQ	Macquarie Telecom Gp	54.35	-6%	5,809	$1,252,942,594
WHC	Whitehaven Coal	8.035	-6%	12,109,648	$7,594,213,455
DDR	Dicker Data Limited	8.76	-6%	1,275,599	$1,676,652,116
CRN	Coronado Global Res	2.03	-6%	4,993,802	$3,604,375,520
BLD	Boral Limited	3.775	-5%	7,326,638	$4,379,261,023
CCP	Credit Corp Group	20.5	-5%	144,071	$1,462,076,067
NHC	New Hope Corporation	5.835	-5%	5,859,013	$5,390,666,504
ABC	Adbri Limited	1.835	-4%	1,305,817	$1,253,044,906
MGR	Mirvac Group	2.295	-4%	21,766,320	$9,470,064,521
YAL	Yancoal Aust Ltd	5.8	-4%	3,228,111	$8,001,862,988
SYR	Syrah Resources	1.91	-4%	2,309,829	$1,340,363,184
BFL	Bsp Financial Group	4.7	-4%	3,851	$2,289,377,897