The combination of weak offshore leads and a flurry of mixed earnings reports has seen the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX:XJO) trade progressively lower today with the main index currently trading around 0.3% lower to 5,537.
The information technology and gold sectors have been the best-performing sectors today, with the energy and telecommunications sectors dragging the market down.
Four shares that are trading significantly higher today, include:
Computershare Limited (ASX: CPU)
Shares of Computershare surged by as much as 13.5% today following the release of its FY16 results that showed a 7.9% decline in management earnings per share (EPS) to US 55.09 cents. Although this was a fairly uninspiring result with weakness in a number of its key markets, it appears investors were pleased that the result was in line with management's previous guidance. Investors may have also been happy with management's comments that mentioned the company expects FY17 EPS to be slightly up on FY16. The shares have given up some of their early gains, however, and are now trading 7.6% higher to $9.63.
Royal Wolf Holdings Ltd (ASX: RWH)
Shares of the shipping container company have risen by more than 14% to $1.25 today after investors cheered the company's better than expected FY16 earnings result. The company managed to increase revenues by 11% to $165 million, although earnings did fall by around 40% to $7.9 million as a result of its exposure to the challenging resources sector. Nevertheless, the company did provide fairly upbeat forward-looking commentary and this may have eased some investor concerns. The company also declared a fully franked final dividend of 2.5 cents per share, to take its full-year dividend to 5.5 cents per share – down from 9 cents per share in FY15.
Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH)
Cochlear shares have today bounced back from yesterday's sell-off, rising 5.3% to $131.64 per share. As highlighted here, the bionic ear maker delivered a robust FY16 result with profits surging 30% to $189.9 million. The company also provided FY17 earnings guidance of $210-$225 million, suggesting earnings growth of between 10-20% over FY16. It appears investors are happy to buy the shares at current prices (even though they may appear expensive on face value) because very few large-cap shares on the ASX currently offer that level of earnings growth.
Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM)
Newcrest is helping to push the gold sector higher today with its shares gaining 3.6% to $25.29 per share. Overnight weakness in the US dollar has helped to strengthen the gold spot price which is currently trading around 0.6% higher to US$1348 per ounce. Interestingly, Newcrest has been the best performing large-cap stock over the past 12 months with a share price gain of 130%. The gold miner is set to release its FY16 results on the 15th of August.
