The S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX:XJO) was eventful this week. Here are four big stories that affected the ASX 200 index:
Big banks face higher capital requirements
At the end of the working week the shareholders of the big ASX banks got handed yet another piece of bad news.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has decided that the big banks need to hold more capital. Sadly for shareholders, this sent the share prices of the banks down on Friday including Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) which fell nearly 2% and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) shares dropped 2.7%.
Consolidation in the pharmacy sector
Australian Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ASX: API) is the owner of pharmacy groups Soul Pattinson and Priceline, but API management see large synergy benefits with a bold takeover offer for Sigma Healthcare Ltd (ASX: SIG).
Investors clearly agreed with the idea of a merger. The Sigma share price went up 43% and the API share price finished 8.5% higher on Friday.
ACCC has telco concerns
The share price of TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPM) was down 14% over the week after the ACCC voiced concerns about competition and prices if the merger with Vodafone Australia were to go ahead.
TPG is hoping that it doesn't have to build its own mobile network and also wants to enjoy significant synergy benefits by combining with Vodafone.
5G gets closer
We are getting closer to the launch of 5G with telcos announcing the prices they paid for the latest 5G spectrum auctions.
Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) invested a total of $386 million and TPG's joint venture spent $263.3 million on various lots of spectrum this time around.
