Markets Live: ASX trading lower ahead of busy week

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2:43pm

Veteran investor Geoff Wilson says his blue chip-focused listed investment company, WAM Leaders, will remain cautious as the market gets inevitably closer to the end of its long bull run.

WAM Leaders delivered a return of 17.8 per cent for 2017-18, compared with a 13 per cent return from the S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index.

Mr Wilson praised portfolio manager Matthew Haupt, who correctly picked the rise in energy prices, and then took the fund into stocks including Origin Energy and Santos (which also benefited from restructuring moves) and BHP (which has been under extra pressure to perform from activist fund Elliott Associates).

James Thomson has the full story here.

2:24pm

Close your eyes and imagine it's 2030. You're reading The Australian Financial Review, which features this screaming headline: "Super funds bid $500b for BHP".

The story explains how a consortium of superannuation funds, corralled by IFM Investors, have seized on share price weakness in Australia's most famous miner to launch a bold takeover bid.

The yarn says that with Australia's super savings pool sitting at around $6 trillion, the funds have found it increasingly difficult to put their capital to work.

Chanticleer has the full piece here.

2:01pm

The Australian sharemarket is still trading lower although hasn't moved much since 12pm.

The S&P/ASX 200 index is 24 points, or 0.4 per cent, lower at 6244.4.

CSL is still leading the index lower with a 2.4 per cent fall. The four majors are still dragging also.

Western Areas has fallen 3.7 per cent, Sandfire Resources is down 3.1 per cent and Mineral Resources is down 3 per cent.

Wesfarmers is still the market leader with Telstra and Woolworths also lifting the index through more mild gains.

G8 Education is 4.8 per cent higher, Bega Cheese is up 4.7 per cent and Ingham's Group is up 3.5 per cent.

1:39pm

Emerging east coast gas supplier Cooper Energy has signalled an up to five-fold production increase in 2019-2020 after its $355 million Sole project comes online off the coast of Victoria and it taps into the tight market which has seen industrial customers scrambling for supply.

Managing director David Maxwell said output by the junior should rise to about 6 million barrels of oil equivalent in the 2020 financial year, representing an increase of "between four and five" times current levels.

The forecast came as Cooper reported that construction of the Sole project is approaching 60 per cent complete and is on track to start commercial deliveries to customers including AGL Energy and EnergyAustralia in July 2019.

Angela Macdonald-Smith has the full story here.

1:20pm

China's economy grew at 6.7 per cent in the second quarter as expected but growth is slowing as the central government's clampdown on risky debt holds back investment while investors warn the impact of a US trade war will challenge the robustness of the world's second-largest economy in coming years..

The increase in second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) was in line with economists' forecasts and well within President Xi Jinping's economic growth target of 6.5 per cent. But the potential impact of US President Donald Trump's trade tariffs have raised concerns about the government's ability to manage debt and reform its financial system while maintaining robust growth.

The 6.7 per cent increase in GDP for the three months to June compared with 6.8 per cent in the previous quarter. The growth was the lowest since 2016. GDP grew at 6.8 per cent for the first half of the year.

Michael Smith has the full story here.

1:01pm

Ramsay Health Care may face stiff competition for European rival Capio and be forced to lift its bid to capture the company's highly regarded Nordic health operations.

Credit Suisse analysts said Ramsay needs to sweeten its bid by at least 22 per cent to value the business, with operations in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France and Germany, in line with its local peers.

Ramsay's French subsidiary, Ramsay Générale de Santé, lobbed a $1 billion bid, or 48.5 Swedish crowns per share, on Friday, which the Stockholm-listed Capio knocked back on account of it undervaluing the business.

The offer values the company at a price-earnings multiple 8.6 times. On average, healthcare facilities companies across Europe, the Middle East and Africa are valued at 12.2 times, Credit Suisse analysts said on Monday.

Jessica Gardner has the full story here.

12:44pm

Corporate America, helped this year by lower taxes and an economic boom that has unexpectedly bolstered sales, is poised to report yet another surge in profits for the June quarter.

There are signs, however, that the rate of profit growth is poised to shift dramatically lower.

"Visibility is simply not as strong in the second half," Fundstrat Global's Thomas Lee said in a weekend note, pointing to trade tensions, the strength of the US dollar, a softening in global manufacturing and "already high expectations".

China will report its latest GDP data on Monday with the US scheduled to do the same on July 27. In between there will be an opportunity for American executives in particular to renew their optimism about the outlook or begin to hedge.

Timothy Moore has the full story here.

12:19pm

Australian sheep farmers are confident restricted supply will underpin high wool prices for years to come as the fibre continued its stellar run in the last sales before the winter recess.

"It's wonderful times," said Robert McBride, a wool grower whose family company, AJ & PA McBride, is one of the largest wool producers in the world.

The benchmark Eastern Market Indicator dipped back slightly from record highs of more than $20 a kilo to close at $19.81 a kilo on Friday, a 31 per cent or $4.74 increase on last year's July close of $15.07, according to the Australian Wool Innovation weekly price report.

The prices have been on a tear-away run, hitting new records since March.

Read the full story here.

12:01pm

The Australian sharemarket is still sitting lower at midday, continuing to fall through the morning.

The S&P/ASX 200 index is 23.3 points, or 0.4 per cent lower at 6245.1.

CSL is the index's biggest weight, down 1.8 per cent. The big four banks and BHP Billiton are also weighing.

Evolution Mining has fallen 2.4 per cent while Newcrest Mining is down 2.1 per cent.

Wesfarmer's is the market leader, up 0.8 per cent while Telstra is up 0.6 per cent.

G8 Education has risen 4.8 per cent this morning while Bega Cheese is up 4.5 per cent.

11:38am

Liver cancer treatment maker Sirtex Medical said on Monday that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission cleared its $1.4 billion buyout by a Chinese consortium, clearing a major hurdle for the deal to go through.

The company had agreed last month to be taken over by Beijing-based CDH Investments and its partner, China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings, which trumped a bid from U.S.-based Varian Medical Systems.

Sirtex, which has a large portion of its operations in the United States, received clearance for the buyout from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board earlier in the month.

Reuters