The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) dropped by 2.5% today in a rough start to the week for the Australian share market.
This was despite the fact that some Australian states recorded zero (or just one) new coronavirus case and some restrictions are starting to lift.
Here are some of the other highlights from today:
National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) announces provisions and write-downs
One of Australia's big four ASX banks announced some painful provisions and write-downs today.
NAB said that there was a net increase in provisions for customer-related remediation of $188 million after tax. There was also an impairment of the carrying value of NAB's investment in MLC Life of $214 million.
The biggest amount was caused by a change to the application of the software capitalisation policy which will reduce NAB's capitalised software balance as at 31 March 2020 by $1.056 billion and reduce earnings by $742 million after tax.
The NAB share price dropped 2.4% today.
Air passenger traffic disappears for Sydney Airport Holdings Pty Ltd (ASX: SYD)
The airport operator announced that in March 2020 the total passengers decreased by 45.1%. However, for the first 16 days of April provisional data indicated a 96.1% decrease in international passenger traffic and a 97.4% decrease in domestic passenger traffic.
The company expects similar reductions in traffic as long as travel restrictions remain in place.
Sydney Airport announced a number of measures to combat this including no half year distribution, a reduction of expenditure and it secured $850 million of additional bank debt facilities.
The Sydney Airport share price fell 2.9% today.
End of Caltex Australia Limited (ASX: CTX) takeover
The petrol company announced that the discussions between Caltex and Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD) have concluded.
Whilst ATD likes Caltex and may engage with Caltex when there is sufficient global economic clarity, it decided it will not proceed with the proposal because of the coronavirus.
In reaction to this news the Caltex share price dropped by another 7.8% today.
