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

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Speaker 1: for Friday eighty twentieth of December twenty twenty four. I'm

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Speaker 1: Sean Elmer. Every afternoon, we've got the five stories that

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

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: the market ended lower and at one point today hit

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Speaker 1: a three month bottom. The bank's got hit hard, as

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: 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 noon. Some failure

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Speaker 1: in the AX 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 sufficient 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. Storry 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's

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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: Australian Bank has risen nine eight 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 sand Cel Holdings for

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

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: Australia's largest manufacturers and suppliers of industrial gases. The business

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Speaker 1: distributes industrial, medical, and specialty gases in cylinders, offers a

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Speaker 1: wide range of bulk gases from medium to large users.

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Speaker 1: Nippon Sanso is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and

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Speaker 1: is headquartered in Japan. The salest subject to the receipt

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Speaker 1: of certain consents, also needs chick of approval from the

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Speaker 1: Competition and Consumer Commission and the Foreign Investment Review Board.

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Speaker 1: And Story number five New York listed soft drinks group

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Speaker 1: the Coca Cola Company, has bought the ready to drink

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Speaker 1: spirits business of Bilson's Beverages, the Victorian group that collapsed

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Speaker 1: in late July. Bilson's Beverages sells vodka based drinks with

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Speaker 1: flavors such as berry, jelly, musk, green apple, and grape

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Speaker 1: bursts through Endeavor operated retail chains Dan Murphy's and BWS

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Speaker 1: Lekuland That's owned by Cole's, as well as independent liquor stores.

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Speaker 1: According to the finn Administrator's mcgrah Nickel took control of

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Speaker 1: the operation on July thirty one, ran a sale process

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Speaker 1: for the business, which originally was established in eighteen sixty

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Speaker 1: five in regional Victoria. Coca Cola, with a sheer market

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Speaker 1: capitalization of two hundred and sixty nine billion US dollars,

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Speaker 1: has acquired only the ready to drink spirits business, with

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Speaker 1: Nathan and Felicity Cowen, who owned the business, to keep

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Speaker 1: running the much smaller Bilson's Cordial Soda and Beer operations.

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Speaker 1: That's it for the afternoon report for Friday, the twentieth

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Speaker 1: of December twenty twenty four. Make sure you hit follow

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Speaker 1: on the podcast. Will back tomorrow morning with the weekend

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Speaker 1: edition of Beer and Greed business News. I'm Sean Elmer.

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Speaker 1: Enjoy your evening