Updated August 25, 2026 — 11:19am,first published August 25, 2026 — 5:17am
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The Australian sharemarket advanced in early trade, boosted by energy stocks after a strong result from local oil giant Woodside Energy, shrugging off a mixed finish on Wall Street.
The S&P/ASX 200 was up 37.9 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 9141 just before 11am AEST, with all 11 industry sectors bar real estate in the green. The local market added 0.5 per cent on Monday. The Australian dollar was trading at US71.47¢.
Reporting season continues, with Coles and Woodside Energy among companies that released results this morning. The Reserve Bank will publish minutes of its latest meeting, when it kept interest rates on hold, later this morning.
Woodside gained 2.2 per cent after saying a 44 per cent jump in the average selling price for its oil pushed its operating revenue up 28 per cent from a year ago to $US4.19 billion ($5.9 billion) in the June quarter, even as its production output was hit by maintenance work at its Pluto Train 1 LNG processing plant in WA and recovery from cyclone impacts. The sales bump lifted its net profit for the six months to June 30 by 7 per cent to $US1.33 billion.
Santos was up 0.7 per cent and refiner Ampol gained 1.9 per cent. Viva Energy, however, fell 1.9 per cent despite almost tripling its interim dividend from 2.83¢ a share to 7.73¢ a share after its half-yearly profit surged amid the fuel crunch caused by the war in the Middle East. The company, which runs Shell petrol stations across Australia, saw its refining margins jump as oil prices rallied, booking a $452 million profit for the June half, up 331 per cent.
Crude has gained more than 50 per cent this year as the war — now in its sixth month — continues to disrupt the shipping of oil and refined fuels out of the Middle East. It’s unclear whether the US latest plan will loosen Tehran’s stranglehold on the critical Hormuz waterway, or risk blowback by putting America on a collision course with China, which buys the bulk of Iran’s oil. Brent traded near $US92 a barrel this morning, after falling more than 2 per cent in the previous session.
On the retail front, Coles shares edged up 0.2 per cent after Australia’s second-biggest supermarket chain reported a slight rise in annual profit, despite a challenging economic environment that pushed up prices. Its bigger rival Woolworths rose 0.4 per cent.
Coles grew total sales by 2.8 per cent to $45.6 billion, with supermarket sales revenue up 5.1 per cent. The supermarket’s profit of $1.09 billion was hit by a provision of $235 million that had been set aside after the Federal Court last year found Australia’s biggest supermarkets failed to keep accurate records of staff. Excluding this, net profit lifted 13.7 per cent to $1.255 billion.
The grocer said it has entered the new financial year in a strong position, with its flagship supermarkets division gaining market share and sales in the first eight weeks the new financial year “consistent” with the final quarter of last year.
Endeavour, the operator of bottle shop chains Dan Murphy’s and BWS and hundreds of pubs around the country, slumped 3.3 per cent after saying its net profit plummeted almost 88 per cent to $52 million in the past financial year, weighed down by $372 million in charges to account for the declining value of assets and restructuring costs.
The mining and banking heavyweights, which make up more than half of the ASX, bolstered the market in early trade. The world’s largest miner BHP was up 1.3 per cent, its smaller rival Rio Tinto rose 1 per cent and Fortescue added 0.2 per cent as iron ore prices strengthened overnight. Of the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Bank both rose 0.2 per cent, National Australia Bank added 0.5 per cent and Westpac edged up 0.3 per cent,.
Gold miners Northern Star (up 0.4 per cent), Evolution Mining (up 1.1 per cent) and Newmont (up 0.8 per cent) were all higher in early trade. Bullion prices traded near a three-month high, as traders weighed the US Treasury’s next move in the bond market after the surprise intervention that’s revived concerns around fiscal policy.
Bullion was approaching $US4680 an ounce, after adding more than 7 per cent in four sessions of gains since the Treasury ramped up buybacks of long-dated government debt. The unexpected move has revived concerns about rising borrowing costs and exerted downward pressure on the US dollar, making gold that’s priced in the currency cheaper for many buyers.
