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

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Speaker 1: for Monday, the two of December twenty twenty four. I'm

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Speaker 1: Sean A. Elmer. 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 SMPA six two hundred closed up just

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Speaker 1: to touch today to eight four hundred and forty five points.

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Speaker 1: Wasn't really that much going on. The big miners and

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Speaker 1: retailed stocks were higher, while the banks were mixed Outperformers

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Speaker 1: among the large caps at least were Wise Tech Global

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Speaker 1: and West Farmers. Those are only up a little over

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Speaker 1: one percent. Goodman Group was the underperformer. Across the market,

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Speaker 1: techtoks and consumer discretionary businesses did best, while healthcare did worst.

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Speaker 1: In corporate news, Telstra said it has acquired boost Mobile

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Speaker 1: for an undisclosed sum. Northern Star the gold Digger, agreed

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Speaker 1: to buy smaller rival to Gray Mining for five billion dollars.

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Speaker 1: That's a big deal in that sector. And fund manager

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Speaker 1: net Wealth said its funds under management has past one

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Speaker 1: hundred billion dollars for the first time. Mind You, investors

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Speaker 1: sold off the stock. It finished down nearly five percent.

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Speaker 1: Mind You it's up about nine percent this year. Story

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Speaker 1: number two met Cash, the wholesaler to Igasupermarkets, has struggled

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Speaker 1: to grow earnings in the past six months, even on

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Speaker 1: higher revenue. Its half year result to the end of

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Speaker 1: Octaber was better than expected, and that meant its share

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Speaker 1: price rose two point four percent. The group profit was

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Speaker 1: about one point four to two million dollars, though it

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Speaker 1: did cut its interim divideen by about twenty two percent

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Speaker 1: and revenue was high. Chief executive officer Doug Jones said

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Speaker 1: holding market share as shoppers look beyond Coals and Woolly's

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Speaker 1: was a challenge, but Ija seemed to be doing it.

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Speaker 1: Metcash's portfolios include IgA Foodland and Riches, as well as

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Speaker 1: Minor ten and Total Tools. They also have some liquor stores.

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Speaker 1: While supermarkets held up well, the hardware stores suffered, with

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Speaker 1: sales down nearly six percent. Story number three. Sydney Harbor's

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Speaker 1: Lunar Park is back in low hands after pub and

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Speaker 1: hotel company Oscars Group bought it off Canadian giant Brookfield.

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Speaker 1: Oscar's plans to have a series of new Harborside restaurants

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Speaker 1: and bars at the location. Brookfield bought it from Multiplex

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Speaker 1: back in two thousand and seven, then put it up

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Speaker 1: for sale in June this year. The price wasn't disclosed,

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Speaker 1: but it's expected to be that fifty sixty seventy million

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Speaker 1: dollar mark might not sound a lot, but under New

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Speaker 1: South Wales law, the site must remain an amusement facility,

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Speaker 1: so you can't knock it down and build houses or

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Speaker 1: anything like that. Hence the price probably isn't as high

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Speaker 1: as many people thought it might be. It will take

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Speaker 1: more money to introduce new rides, eateries and conference facilities,

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Speaker 1: and that's what Oscars Group plans to do. Oscars Group

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Speaker 1: beat off others including Warner Brothers, Movie World and Dream World.

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Speaker 1: Story number four, the largest attempted importation of cocaine in

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Speaker 1: Australia's history, has been thwarted by police who have charged

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Speaker 1: more than a dozen people over the billion dollar hall.

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Speaker 1: The AFP charged eleven men and two juveniles with conspiring

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Speaker 1: to import two point three four tons of cocaine into

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Speaker 1: the country by sea. According to AAP, it's alleged the

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Speaker 1: men and crew of a vessel attempted to import the

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Speaker 1: drugs into Queensland, with multiple groups planning to collect the

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Speaker 1: cocaine on shore. The men were arrested on Saturday following

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Speaker 1: a collaborative effort by the AFP and Queensland Police investigating

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Speaker 1: a transnational organized crime sending it. The amount of cocaine

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Speaker 1: allegedly attempted to be imported weighs the same as a

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Speaker 1: forward raptor ute and story numbers five. A record number

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Speaker 1: of Australians are struggling to pay their energy bills, according

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Speaker 1: to the Market Regulatum. The Australian Energy Regulatum said that

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Speaker 1: one point nine percent of customers are now on hardship

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Speaker 1: payment plans. That's up from one point four percent twelve

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Speaker 1: months ago, but the average cost of debt is lower

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Speaker 1: than twelve months earlier thanks to the federal government's three

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars rebate introduced on one July. The regulator also

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Speaker 1: said more people entering hardship payments are doing it earlier

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Speaker 1: and that's a good thing. That's it. The Afternoon Report

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Speaker 1: for Monday, the two December twenty twenty four Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and I will be back tomorrow morning with the Tuesday

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Speaker 1: edition of Fear and Greed Business News. I'm Sean Elma.

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Speaker 1: Enjoy your evening.