Welcome to the start of a new business week. Here are the five things I'm looking at today on the Australian sharemarket.
- The S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has surged higher in early morning trade, up 0.7% to 5,413, following strong gains on offshore markets on Friday.
- Reporting season gets into full swing this week with a host of companies reporting. Today we have JB Hi-Fi Limited (ASX: JBH) and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited (ASX: BEN) reporting. JB Hi-Fi has announced a 16.7% increase in dividends for the full year, a move we suggested might occur last week. Investors don't like the results much, with debt ballooning and forecast growth low. JB Hi-Fi's shares are down over 7% in trading so far this morning
Bendigo has reported a 10% increase in underlying cash earnings, and a full year dividend of 64 cents per share, and fully franked too. - Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) has received a confidential competing takeover bid, rumoured to be private equity (PE) firm TPG, and the Australian Financial Review reports another two PE firms Carlyle Group and Blackstone Group could also be sniffing around. The odds of a bidding war appeared to have increased dramatically – just the thing the company's long-suffering shareholders will be over the moon about.
- Top tweet of the day –
Our own Joe MagyerWas happy to see this still on the wall at Fool HQ. Yes, I once had hair. pic.twitter.com/82uRr6qsA9
— Joe Magyer (@Magyer) August 10, 2014
- Stock of the day comes from Andrew Mudie – Veda Group (ASX: VED). It's a company liked by a number of our writers, including Ryan Newman, who personally bought shares in the company a month ago. Veda has a very strong market share, and Andrew outlines a number of reasons why he's excited about the company.
