The real estate sector is dragging on the ASX today with that index down 1.2 per cent compared to a 0.01 per cent decline in the S&P/ASX 200 to 6167 points.

Lendlease is down 5.3 per cent to $13.44 after it reported a massive drop in first-half profit and is looking to off load its engineering business. Shopping centre owners are also weaker today on weak sales outlooks. Scentre Group is down 1.8 per cent to $3.86 and Stockland is down 2.2 per cent to $3.56 and Vicinity, which owns Chadstone in Melbourne and Chatswood Chase in Sydney, is down 2 per cent to $2.44. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is down 1.7 per cent to $11.34 after poor results last week.

The S&P/ASX 200 is struggling in the afternoon and is now at 6169, less than two points off the opening. A few stocks are losing steam as we move into the afternoon.

Telstra is down 1.2 per cent to $3.20 and Flight Centre has been falling steadily since being downgraded to 'sell' at Morningstar. It has lost $2.74 today to $42.16. And the Australian dollar being below US72 cents doesn't help appetite for overseas travel.

The Senate report into the buy-now-pay later (BNPL) sector may not have cleared all regulatory hurdles but it was enough to send Afterpay's share price soaring Monday morning. Afterpay shares were up more than 18 per cent at noon to $22.27, and rivals Zip Co and Splitit were up 8 per cent and 12 per cent respectively, in response to the release of the report Friday evening which confirmed the sector would not be brought under the onerous provisions of the Credit Act.

"The key risk from the Senate process were direct comments that BNPL should be rolled into the National Credit Code. This has not occurred," said Wilsons Equity analyst Mark Bryan.

"Afterpay supports the Committee's recommendations relevant to the BNPL sector as they are sensible, appropriate and a proportionate policy response to the BNPL industry," Afterpay said in a statement to the ASX on Monday. "Afterpay does not expect any material impact on our business or business model based on the recommendations in the report," said the company.

Read the full story from Colin Kruger here

The S&P/ASX 200 is having a rocky ride today with the market currently 8 points higher at 6175, a rise of 0.1 per cent. It has been as high at 6191 and as low as 6172, but has managed to keep above Friday's close of 6167.

Currently points are being added by BHP Group, CSL, South32, Afterpay Touch, BlueScope, QBE, and Brambles.

While Commonwealth Bank, Scentre Group, Lendlease, Telstra and Westpac are taking points off.

After releasing a market update on February 18 that sent its share price down 40 per cent from $2.26 to $1.17, Bingo Industries advises its half year results will be out tomorrow with a presentation at 10am.

Shares are still under pressure and trading 3 cents lower at $1.27 today.

Shares in Automotive Holdings are up 4.6 per cent to reach an intra-day high of $2.19 today, three days after it announced modest results with a statutory loss of $225.6 million due to its franchised automotive and refrigerated logistics business units. It also cut full year profit expectations to between $52 million and $56 million, down from between $56 million and $59 million.

On Friday morning the company revealed it would not pay a dividend "to allow the company to reinvest in the balance sheet and build long term shareholder value". Managing director John McConnell said the company is not happy with the share price (which was at $3.80 12 months ago), but the company is making tough decisions to clean up its balance sheet, including taking out $23 million in recurring costs by closing stores and sacking staff. It has appointed UBS and Luminis Partners to conduct a strategic review of its refrigerated logistics business, including a potential sale.

Shares have increased from $1.75 on Thursday to a current price of $2.07.

You may notice the ASX website is having trouble loading today. A spokesman confirms its is having intermittent technical issues.

"We apologise for the disruption and are working to fix it as soon as possible," he said.

"Importantly, there's no disruption to the trading platform or to the Market Announcements Platform. Market information is available from a variety of other data vendors in the meantime."

Child care provider G8 Education is down 11.6 per cent to $3.21 after posting disappointing results this morning with profit falling 11 per cent to $71.8 million. The company will provide a trading update at the annual general meeting, but noted its 2019 result will be affected "by the cessation of annual license fee revenue of $4 million".

AAP reports that the company said childcare centres it had acquired in acquisitions in past years had performed below expectations but it was taking steps to turn them around. G8 said revenue for the calendar year was up eight per cent, to $857 million, and declared an interim dividend of eight cents a share.

"The group's profit and cashflow results reflects the disciplined management of the G8 portfolio in challenging market conditions," G8 managing director Gary Carroll said on Monday.

G8 runs 17 childcare centres in Singapore and 519 across Australia, operating under a number of brands including Kinder Haven, Penguin Childcare and Creative Garden.

In a separate statement, G8 said it was made progress on gender equality. Forty-five per cent of its senior executives - four out of nine - are women, compared to 37.5 per cent a year ago. It hopes to reach parity this year. Overall, 98 per cent of its nearly 10,000 employees are women.

Network Ten isn't listed on the Australian stock market anymore after US giant CBS bought it out of administration in late 2017, but its performance impacts on the prices of Seven West Media and Nine Entertainment (publisher of this blog). Seven is trading 0.9 per cent higher at 54.5 cents this morning while Nine is down 1.5 per cent to $1.65 after reaching a two-month high of $1.68 on Friday.

Media reporter Jennifer Duke reports this morning that Network Ten is betting on an improved performance by its sales team and new programs after starting the year with the lowest commercial free-to-air revenue share on record. In January, amid a sluggish advertising market, Ten managed a market share of about 16 per cent compared to Seven West Media's 39 per cent and Nine Entertainment Co's 45 per cent.

Ten chief sales officer Rod Prosser says there would be a recovery from the next quarter onwards as the company's programming strategy started to pay off with significant hopes to build on Dancing With The Stars and Sunday Night Takeaway with brand integrations.

Read the full story here

Data-for-machine-learning company Appen is up nearly 20 per cent in early trading to $22.11. The stock has increased 3,867 per cent since listing at 50 cents in January 2015. This morning it announced full year results with revenue increased 120 per cent to $364 million and underlying post-tax profit increased 148 per cent to $49 million. Both results were lower than consensus analyst expectations of $432 million and $53 million, but the stock is still rallying.

Its underlying earnings in 2018 were $71.3 million and Appen is forecasting this year will deliver earnings between $85 million and $90 million, a rise of about 20 per cent. It also noted that "future investments necessitate a review of Appen's capital management priorities, including dividend policy" and already has already booked orders worth $165 million.

It declared a full year dividend of 8 cents, about one third higher than last year.

Appen told the stock market the artificial intelligence market will be worth up to $191 billion by 2025 as it is used for online advertising, translation, chat bots, facial recognition, and autonomous vehicles.