The ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) was eventful again this week. Here are four big stories you may have missed that affected the ASX 200 index:
Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT)
The buy now, pay later business had a pretty rough end to the week. The Afterpay share price fell around 10% on Friday, or even more from the intraday's high point.
The cause of the decline was the announcement by payments business Visa that it will be entering the buy now, pay later arena. There is a suggestion that the buy now, pay later instalment option could be offered for free to merchants because Visa still makes money on every transaction it processes.
The REIT sector's capital raisings
We've seen a quick succession of capital raising from the real estate investment trust (REIT) sector to take advantage of demand for higher-yielding assets.
Some of the examples of REIT capital raisings are: Centuria Industrial Reit (ASX: CIP), Growthpoint Properties Australia Ltd (ASX: GOZ), National Storage REIT (ASX: NSR) and Cromwell Group (ASX: CMW).
It remains to be seen whether these REITs purchase properties at attractive long-term prices or whether they overpay.
CSR Limited (ASX: CSR)
The construction materials business held its AGM this week and told us that volumes in April and May have been largely flat on the March quarter even as it acknowledged the tailwinds for the industry of the Federal election win by the Liberals and other factors.
Not only is this not good for CSR but it also raises question marks for a number of other industry participants like Boral Limited (ASX: BLD), Beacon Lighting Group Ltd (ASX: BLX), Reece Ltd (ASX: REH) and Adelaide Brighton Ltd. (ASX: ABC).
Metcash Limited (ASX: MTS)
The IGA supermarket supplier and hardware owner delivered its FY19 report this week.
Investors weren't too pleased by what they saw in the result and commentary, with the share price down over 14% over the week.
Revenue grew by 1.8% to $12.7 billion excluding charge through sales and underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) fell 3% to $210.3 million.
