ASX edges up on gold miners; Woolworths tumbles amid profit drop

The Australian sharemarket rose at the open on Wednesday, lifted by Wall Street's gains and a flood of corporate earnings that investors are parsing for signs of momentum.
The S&P/ASX 200 index gained 20.20 points, or 0.2 per cent to 8955.80 at 10.10am AEST , with eight of the 11 sectors higher led by materials.
Gains in materials were paced by gold miners as the precious metal initially surged on rising political uncertainty after Trump threatened to fire Fed Board member Cook, sending the US dollar lower and boosting haven demand. Northern Star jumped 3.6 per cent, Evolution Mining by 4.1 per cent and Newmont by 2.1 per cent.
Fortescue Metals however weighed on the sector as it fell 2.6 per cent after it was downgraded by several brokers following its result on Tuesday.
Consumer staples were the worst performer as Woolworths dived 12 per cent after it slashed its final dividend after it posted a 17 per cent fall in underlying net profit to $1.38 billion in the full year. Coles meanwhile gained 2.2 per cent after it was upgraded to "buy" by Bell Potter.
Stocks in focus
In company news, Nine Entertainment, the owner of this masthead, soared 9.4 per cent after it said it would pay 49c a share - $780 million - to investors as a special dividend from the sale of its stake in property listings portal Domain to US real estate giant CoStar.
Logistics software giant WiseTech Global tumbled 16.1 per cent after it missed analysts' expectations on revenue and profit growth.
Sigma Healthcare, the retail and pharmacy giant that merged with Chemist Warehouse, soared 7.1 per cent as it announced a senior management shake up as it posted a 41 per cent increase in annual profits and upgraded cost saving targets for the combined group.
Tabcorp rocketed 20 per cent following underlying group revenue of $2.61 billion for FY25 and a return to profit.
Worley rose 5.7 per cent as it forecasted "moderate" growth this financial year and said it would use artificial intelligence to become more efficient as the global engineering group's annual net profit rose 35 per cent to $409 million. Group revenue slid 5 per cent to $11.2 billion.
Fashion jewellery retailer Lovisa jumped 10.5 per cent after it delivered another year of growth, with revenue climbing 14.2 per cent to $798.1 million for the 2024-2025 financial year
Domino's Pizza Enterprises plunged 18.5 per cent as it slumped to a full-year loss of $3.7 million in the 2024-25 financial year after heavy restructuring costs, and cut its final dividend to 21.5 per share
Flight Centre fell 5 per cent as profits fell on a weaker fourth quarter after tensions in the Middle East

Sumber : AFR