The ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) was eventful again this week. Here are four big stories you may have missed that affected businesses in the ASX 200 index:
Market takes a quick dive
Over the first two days of the week the ASX 200 suffered a 4.2% fall, which is quite a sizeable fall from an index.
The latest falls were caused by the ongoing trade war and tensions between the US and China. Initially, I think US President Donald Trump had a point about stealing IP and so on, but it has certainly gotten more political over time and who knows when it will end?
But, the ASX 200 recovered 1.6% by the end of the week.
Shorts strike the agricultural sector
It may have been an opportunistic time to do so, but shorters chose this week to attack two shares in the agricultural sector. Bonitas Research went after Rural Funds Group (ASX: RFF) and Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) was targeted by GMT Research.
Both of the ASX businesses strongly refuted the claims and are in the process of defending themselves further.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) reports its FY19 result
The biggest ASX bank reported its FY19 result this week.
CBA held the full year dividend at $4.31 per share, statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) fell by 8.1% and cash NPAT decreased by 4.7%.
I was pleased to see that 90+ day home loan arrears dropped over the year to 0.68%, but 90+ day personal loan arrears increased and 'troublesome and impaired assets' increased by $1.3 billion over the year. Hopefully this doesn't keep going up.
REA Group Limited (ASX: REA) continues to grow in FY19 report
Ignoring the large writedowns in its Asian division, REA Group had a solid year considering how weak the Australian residential market was and how tough the commercial & developer part of the market was.
REA Group reported that in its core operations revenue increased by 8% to $874.9 million, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 8%, the net profit increased by 6% and the dividend went up 8%.
