At lunch on Thursday the S&P/ASX 200 index has given back its morning gains and is just a fraction higher. At the time of writing the benchmark index is up a few points to 6,260.5 points.
Here's what has been happening on the market today:
Bank shares rise.
One area of the market that looks set to finish the week on a high is the banking sector. At noon all four big banks are trading higher, with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) shares the best performer in the group with a gain of 0.3%.
Galaxy crashes lower.
The Galaxy Resources Limited (ASX: GXY) share price is 8% lower after the lithium miner's quarterly update disappointed investors. Although production was strong, the company experienced a significant decline in the amount of concentrate shipped. In addition to this, management advised that it hasn't been able to agree a transaction structure which provides a valuation that properly reflects the "world class nature" of its Sal de Vida asset. At one stage the Galaxy share price was down as much as 18%.
HUB24 has record quarter.
The HUB24 Limited (ASX: HUB) share price is 1.5% higher at lunch after the investment platform company reported a record result for the March 2019 quarter. HUB24 reported a 33.3% increase in quarterly net inflows on the prior corresponding period to $793 million and gross inflows growth of 40.9% to $1.2 billion.
Woodside shares higher.
The Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL) share price is up just under 1% on Thursday after the release of its first quarter report. During the quarter the energy producer delivered sales revenue of $1,221 million and production of 21.7 MMboe. That latter was down 10% on the previous quarter due to the impact of cyclones and outages.
Best and worst performers.
The best performer on the ASX 200 on Thursday has been the Syrah Resources Ltd (ASX: SYR) share price with a 6% gain despite there being no news out of the graphite producer. Going the other way is of course the Galaxy share price with its sizeable decline. The next worst performer is the Australian Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ASX: API) share price with a decline of just over 3.5%. This morning Credit Suisse retained its underperform rating on the company following its first half result. The broker believes its shares are overvalued.
