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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report

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Speaker 1: for Friday, eight, the twentieth of December twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: I'm Sean Almer. Every afternoon, we've got the five stories

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Speaker 1: that happened today that you need to know about. Story

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Speaker 1: number one. The ASX two hundred closed the day down

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Speaker 1: one point two percent to eight thousand and seventy six points,

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Speaker 1: following the two percent drop yesterday. Whether it was the

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Speaker 1: lead of Wall Street fears about inflation, profit taking, whatever

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Speaker 1: it was, the market ended lower and at one point

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Speaker 1: today hit a three month bottom. The banks got hit hard,

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Speaker 1: as did the consumer discretionary stocks. West Farmers finished down

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Speaker 1: five percent. JB High five was off more than two percent.

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Speaker 1: The energy and utility sectors performed best, with Woodside rising

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Speaker 1: a couple of percent. Story number two. Not a great

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Speaker 1: day for the Australian Securities Exchange with the chess system crashing.

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Speaker 1: The exchange notified its regulators, the Reserve Bank and the

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Speaker 1: Australian Securities and Investments Commission about an issue that has

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Speaker 1: caused a delay to settlement processes this afternoon. Some failure

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Speaker 1: in the ASEX Chess batch processing systems means payments for

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Speaker 1: trades are not going through. According to the fin review,

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Speaker 1: the Chess system manages share transactions and documentation. Chess remains

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Speaker 1: available late this afternoon to provide efficient time for Chess

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Speaker 1: users to complete activities following resolution of this issue, although

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Speaker 1: as we go aware, I'm not sure that the issue's

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Speaker 1: been resolved as yet. Story number three. The big surperannuation

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Speaker 1: funds are overweight banks, increasing their ownership of the Big

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Speaker 1: four or in fact all Australian banks to twenty nine

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Speaker 1: point seven percent in September from twenty seven point nine

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Speaker 1: percent a year earlier. Buying by the big super funds

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Speaker 1: has been a key reason why bank stocks have performed

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Speaker 1: so well this year. Notwithstanding, Commonwealth Bank today hit a

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Speaker 1: one month lower after it fell three point seven percent.

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Speaker 1: Banks have also benefited from rising passive and exchange traded

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Speaker 1: fun flows. According to Morgan Stanley, bank valuations are now

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Speaker 1: seven times above the long run average on an earning

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Speaker 1: multiple basis. In other words, they're very expensive on an

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Speaker 1: historical basis. Over the last year, Westpack is up thirty

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Speaker 1: nine percent, Commonwealth Bank is up thirty five percent. National

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Speaker 1: Australia Bank has risen nineteen percent. Ain Z eight percent.

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Speaker 1: Story number four West Farmers will sell its core Gas

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Speaker 1: business to a subsidiary of Nippon Sanseel Holdings for about

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Speaker 1: seven hundred and seventy million dollars. Once completed, West Farmers

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Speaker 1: expects to report a pre tax profit on the sale

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Speaker 1: of somewhere between two hundred and thirty and two hundred

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Speaker 1: and sixty million dollars. Core Gas is part of West

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Speaker 1: Farmer's Industrial and Safety division and is one of Australia's

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Speaker 1: largest manufacturers and suppliers of industrial gases. The business distributes industrial, medical,

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Speaker 1: and specialty gases in cylinders, offers a wide range of

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Speaker 1: bulk gases from medium to large users. Nippon Sanso is

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Speaker 1: listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is headquartered in Japan.

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Speaker 1: The salest subject to the receipt of certain consents, also

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Speaker 1: needs chick of approval from the Competition and Consumer Commission

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Speaker 1: and the Foreign Investment Review Board. And Story number five

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Speaker 1: New York listst Soft Drinks Group, The Coca Cola Company

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Speaker 1: has bought the ready to drink spirits business of Bilson's Beverages,

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Speaker 1: the Victorian group that collapsed in late July. Bilson's Beverages

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Speaker 1: sells vodka based drinks with flavors such as berry, jelly, musk,

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Speaker 1: green apple, and grape bursts through Endeavor operated retail chains

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Speaker 1: Dan Murphy's and BWS Lekulan that's owned by Cole's, as

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Speaker 1: well as independent liquor stores. According to the FINN administrators,

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Speaker 1: mcgrah nickel took control of the operation on July thirty one,

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Speaker 1: ran a sale process for the business, which originally was

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Speaker 1: established in eighteen sixty five in regional Victoria. Coca Cola,

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Speaker 1: with a sheer market capitalization of two hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: nine billion US dollars, has acquired only the ready to

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Speaker 1: drink spirits business, with Nathan and Felicity Cowen, who owned

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Speaker 1: the business, to keep running the much smaller Bilson's Cordial

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Speaker 1: Soda and Beer operations. That's it for the afternoon report

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Speaker 1: for Friday, the twentieth of December twenty twenty four. Make

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Speaker 1: sure you hit follow on the podcast. We'll be back

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Speaker 1: tomorrow morning with the weekend edition one of the Fast

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Speaker 1: five Business News by Fear and Greed. I'm Sean elma

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Speaker 1: Enjoy your evening