ASX Large Caps: Woolworths' Big W takes hit from slowdown; Santos' profit dives 32pc

Local shares rallied on Wednesday
Results from Wisetech, Domino’s and Woolworths were highlights
Global funds ditched Chinese stocks, says Bloomberg

The ASX rallied around half a percentage point on Wednesday, boosted by earnings results from Woolworths (ASX:WOW) and IDP Education (ASX:IEL) – more details below.

Consumer Staples led, while Tech was weighed by the nearly 20% collapse in major play Wisetech (ASX:WTC) – also see more details below.

Mining stocks mainly rose while coal stocks led the Energy sector higher.

The market is still largely cautious ahead of Jerome Powell’s speech at the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole gathering on August 24-26.

Policymakers from the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are expected to be present at the gathering.

The Aussie dollar meanwhile was up half a percent to US64.5¢ after iron ore futures in Singapore rose around 1.7%, which also drove iron ore stocks higher today.

Elsewhere, global investors have been ditching Chinese stocks lately, according to data collected by Bloomberg.

Overseas funds have been fleeing the mainland market, offloading the equivalent of US$9.3 billion in a 12-day run from Aug 7 to 18, the longest since Bloomberg began tracking the data in 2016.

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
MMS	McMillan Shakespeare	22.13	13.52	464,260	$1,357,342,538
DMP	Domino Pizza Enterpr	52.72	9.76	670,715	$4,279,012,008
IEL	Idp Education Ltd	25.38	8.95	1,850,769	$6,482,450,354
MND	Monadelphous Group	14.43	7.05	913,323	$1,300,884,704
HSN	Hansen Technologies	5.73	6.11	1,158,683	$1,096,525,274
EBO	Ebos Group Ltd	33.38	6.10	23,918	$6,028,144,634
SIQ	Smartgrp Corporation	9.34	5.54	939,946	$1,182,987,474
CIA	Champion Iron Ltd	5.85	5.51	1,797,275	$2,865,818,372
EMR	Emerald Res NL	2.34	5.41	698,903	$1,323,174,319
JDO	Judo Cap Holdings	1.26	4.34	396,626	$1,337,679,045
WOW	Woolworths Group Ltd	37.68	4.03	2,277,793	$44,141,388,541
NXT	Nextdc Limited	13.58	3.86	2,762,784	$6,726,431,533
HMC	HMC Capital Limited	5.42	3.83	1,284,494	$1,814,540,163
MAD	Mader Group Limited	7.59	3.83	256,842	$1,462,000,000
QUB	Qube Holdings Ltd	2.80	3.70	3,052,093	$4,767,558,815
SKC	Skycity Ent Grp Ltd	2.09	3.47	273,988	$1,535,614,522
NSR	National Storage	2.28	3.41	5,111,330	$2,966,441,702

The best large cap today was salary-packaging company McMillan Shakespeare (ASX: MMS), which rose almost 10% after reporting a 5.3% increase in revenue to $624.6m.

IDP Education (ASX:IEL) rose 9% after reporting record revenue of $982 million, up 24% vs FY22; driven by strong student placement revenue growth of 63% on the pcp.

For the full year, Woolworths (ASX:WOW) posted a 5.7% growth in sales to $64.29 billion. Bottom line NPAT fell 79.6% to $1.618 billion, in line with estimates.

Sales in its Big W stores dropped as discretionary spending took a hit from a slowdown in consumer spending.

Domino’s Pizza (ASX:DMP) reported full year global sales of $4 billion, up 2.2% on pcp. Full year EBIT was $201.7m, down -23.3% on pcp.

Domino’s says the company’s margins and earnings were affected by the decision to increase menu prices to protect the sustainability of more than 1,000 franchisee partners faced with ‘extraordinary inflation’. As a result, its total sales growth came through higher menu prices, not the sales of more meals.

Global engineering firm Worley (ASX:WOR) said full year revenues rose 17% to $11.3 billion, while underlying earnings rose 16% to $635 million. However, Worley took a hit of $240 million on the sale of Jacob Engineering, a company it partly acquired in 2019. Worley declared a final dividend of 25¢ a share, in line with last year.

BIG CAP LOSERS

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
WTC	Wisetech Global Ltd	69.29	-19.98	3,628,649	$28,735,464,293
ILU	Iluka Resources	8.31	-10.84	5,045,807	$3,970,439,352
NAN	Nanosonics Limited	4.09	-9.22	4,248,941	$1,360,607,850
MFG	Magellan Fin Grp Ltd	9.76	-7.49	1,344,120	$1,914,106,534
PNV	Polynovo Limited	1.47	-5.79	3,405,867	$1,073,311,928
CTD	Corp Travel Limited	18.32	-5.71	2,121,571	$2,843,109,245
INA	Ingenia Group	4.02	-4.74	1,061,025	$1,720,001,374
AZS	Azure Minerals	2.74	-4.53	2,699,776	$1,120,695,027
AWC	Alumina Limited	1.17	-3.72	9,438,260	$3,511,034,515
STX	Strike Energy Ltd	0.40	-3.61	4,178,298	$1,052,299,651
ASK	Abacus Storage King	1.23	-3.16	941,524	$1,662,340,247
HGH	Heartland Group	1.55	-2.67	732	$1,128,356,538
A4N	Alpha Hpa Ltd	1.13	-2.60	693,122	$1,015,250,277
NWL	Netwealth Group	15.53	-2.51	112,283	$3,885,185,111
MP1	Megaport Limited	11.86	-2.39	1,348,084	$1,929,612,869

Santos (ASX:STO) has posted a 32% slump in H1 profit to $US790 million, due to softer production and lower oil and LNG prices. The company declared an interim dividend of US8.7¢, up 14% on the pcp.

Wisetech Global (ASX:WTC) dropped as forecast came in less than expected. The company reported full year FY23 total revenue of $816.8 million, up 29% on the pcp. Underlying NPAT 3 of $247.6 million, up 30% on the pcp.

For FY24, Wistech has guided the market to revenue of $1,040 million–$1,095 million, a 27%–34% from FY23. EBITDA is expected between $455 million–$490 million, representing growth of 18%–27% from this financial year.

The Lottery Corp (ASX:TLC) reported a 4.2% increase in EBITDA to $713.2m, which was 4% higher than pcp. Powerball jackpots tracked marginally below statistical model probabilities, however, its performance was boosted by active acceleration of the jackpot sequences at certain points during the year.