Australia Market extends losses on profit booking

The Australian share market finished lower for second straight session on Thursday, 13 August 2020, as investors continued withdrawing profit off the table after spike in domestic unemployment rate to a 22-year high of 7.5% in July and series of poor earnings forecasts fanned fears of more financial pain from the COVID-19 crisis.

At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell 41.05 points, or 0.67%, to 6,091.00. The broader All Ordinaries was down 33.13 points, or 0.53%, to 6,223.86.

The country's top power producer, AGL Energy, and telecom giant Telstra Corp forecasted sharp drops in their earnings for fiscal 2021, sending their shares down 9.6% and 8.3%, respectively.

Meanwhile, scandal-hit AMP Ltd ended over 10% higher after it said it would return about A$400 million to investors in the form of a special dividend and a share buyback.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Australia Unemployment Rate Advances To 7.5% In July Australia unemployment rate was a seasonally adjusted 7.5% in July, up from 7.4% in June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. The Australian economy added 114,700 jobs last month to 12,460,800, following the addition of 210,800 jobs in the previous month. Full-time employment increased 43,500 to 8,547,100 people and part-time employment increased 71,200 to 3,913,600 people. The participation rate came in at 64.7%, beating forecasts for 64.4% and up from 64.0% a month earlier.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar changed hands at 0.7158, strengthening from earlier this week.

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