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It was a mixed day for Australian shares on Thursday with stocks finishing broadly flat, despite further federal government stimulus being revealed beyond the end of JobKeeper.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index ended the session slightly down by 0.2 points to close at 6713.9, with heavy losses sustained in the technology and material sectors.
The broader All Ordinaries index remained relatively unchanged, only gaining 5.7 points to close at 6952.9, while the Australian dollar was fetching 77.47 US cents and the spot gold price was sitting at $US1732.35 an ounce.
OpenMarkets chief executive Ivan Tchourilov said the performance followed a mixed day on Wall Street in the United States.
“US markets were mixed last night with the NASDAQ giving back some of Tuesday’s gains and closing down 0.44 per cent, while the broader S&P500 closed up 0.23 per cent,” he said.
“Banks were strong which helped push the Dow Jones into positive territory.”
Travel stocks were the best performer of the day after the unveiling of the federal government’s initiative to kickstart the sector with discounted airline tickets.
This prompted Flight Centre to take out top spot of the day with its shares rising 9.2 per cent to $19.44 each.
Despite outpacing the market, Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner said the airline package was “no help” to the wider tourism industry in recovering from the pandemic.
“I am not sure this will make much of a difference to them,” Mr Turner said.
“This really is targeted to the aviation industry and maybe some tourist destinations … it certainly does not help us at all.”
Rivals Helloworld jumped 4.8 per cent to $6.05 per share and Melbourne-based Webjet increased its share price by 3.75 per cent to $6.05 each.
Qantas, which is set to benefit the most from the package, saw its stock price rise 2.5 per cent to $5.30 per share.
IDP Education witnessed the largest fall, with its share price tumbling 5.65 per cent to $22.86 each after it notified the stock market of a restructure with major shareholder Education Australia.
Buy-now-pay-later business Afterpay also took a tumble closing the session down 3.7 per cent to $111 per share.
Major banks all ended in negative territory with Commonwealth Bank stock finishing 0.3 per cent lower to $86.45 per share, while ANZ shares slumped 1 per cent to $28.22 each.
Westpac fell 0.3 per cent to $24.53 per share and NAB ended 0.5 per cent lower to $26.12 per share.
Rio Tinto shares 1.1 per cent to $115.70 each, while competitor BHP closed 1.7 per cent lower to $46.80 per share and Fortescue Metals jumped 2.2 per cent to $20.78 per share.
Wesfarmers edged 0.5 per cent higher to $49.86 per share and Woolworths closed the session down 0.3 per cent to $38.79.
Telstra shares closed 0.3 per cent lower to $3.06 each.
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