The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) fell by 1.7% today in another red day for the Australian share market.
Australia's unemployment numbers were revealed today with the economy losing 594,300 jobs. Youth unemployment and the number of hours worked also showed a painful decline.
These job numbers are probably why the ASX 200 lost quite a bit of ground over the last two hours of trading.
There were some individual highlights within the ASX 200:
Xero Limited (ASX: XRO)
The Xero share price fell around 4.7% today after the ASX 200 accounting software business released its FY20 report to investors.
Operating revenue grew by 30% to NZ$718.2 million. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) went up 88% to NZ$137.7 million. Free cash flow grew 320% to NZ$27.1 million and Xero generated a net profit of NZ$3.3 million.
Total subscribers grew by 26% to close to 2.3 million. UK subscribers increased by another 32% to 613,000.
Xero warned that trading in the early stages of FY21 has been impacted by the coronavirus environment.
Charter Hall Group (ASX: CHC)
The share price of the ASX 200 property group business rose by 4.25% after giving a market update.
Charter Hall reaffirmed its FY20 earnings guidance for approximately 40% operating earnings per security growth compared to FY19.
At 30 April 2020 it had $39.2 billion of funds under management (FUM) and a development pipeline of $7.3 billion. So far during the year it has seen FUM growth of $8.8 billion.
Breville Group Ltd (ASX: BRG)
The share price of Breville jumped 6.7% higher today after reacting to a trading update and the capital raising. The share price of the ASX 200 business was up more than 10% earlier today.
Breville has already completed a $94 million institutional placement with significant support from existing investors.
In the trading update Breville said that it delivered 32% revenue growth for the period from 1 January 2020 to 30 April 2020. Revenue growth in March was 25% and in April was 21%. The gross margin in January to April 2020 was consistent with the first half of 2020.
Despite the good performance, the ASX 200 company has moved to manage cashflow and reduce cash expenses.
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Returns as of 7/4/2020
Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of Xero. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
