The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) dropped by more than 1% today, falling to 5,883 points.
Here were some of the highlights from the ASX 200:
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Biggest movers and shakers
At the bottom of the ASX 200 performance table the Mineral Resources Limited (ASX: MIN) share price fell by 9.4%.
There were businesses that dropped heavily. The Breville Group Ltd (ASX: BRG) share price fell by 7.5%, the Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) share price dropped 6.4%, the Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) share price declined by 5.5% and the Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) share price dropped 5.4%.
There were some businesses that saw gains. The ASX 200 leader was the Orora Ltd (ASX: ORA) share price which climbed around 3%.
Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL)
Fintech business Netwealth announced today that it was making a strategic investment and partnership with Xeppo. Initially, Netwealth is buying a 25% stake, though it has an option to increase its investment to 50%.
The ASX 200 business said that Xeppo specialises in connecting, matching and reconciling data from a wide range of sources to support the wealth management, accounting and mortgage industries.
Netwealth said that the investment, although not initially financially material, will enable and accelerate a number of key initiatives Netwealth has previously announced and is expected to create a unique and market-leading proposition for multi-disciplinary and integrates wealth practices.
Matt Heine, joint managing director of Netwealth, said: "A key element of Netwealth's strategy is to expand and enrich the data which underpins our current and future technology and which sits at the core of our 'whole of wealth' and client portal offering.
"From our recent research, we found that advice firms on average use between 12 and 15 technology systems in their business, all of which have different data models, significant data discrepancies and often overlap from a features perspective. For example, the Netwealth platform captures customer details as does an advice firm's CRM, planning software, fact find and client portal.
"Working closely with Xeppo we can solve this challenge and enable systems to better connect and integrate with each other driving business efficiency and great client experiences."
Heartland Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: HGH)
Heartland announced its FY20 result today.
It said that it generated net profit after tax (NPAT) of $72 million. It also said it made adjusted NPAT of $78.9 million (after removing the economic overlay of (pre-tax) $9.6 million) which was up 7.2%.
Its gross finance receivables was $4.6 billion, up 4.9%. The financial business said that its net interest margin (NIM) was 4.33%, flat compared to FY19. Net operating income increased by 13.2% to $235.3 million.
It declared a final dividend of 2.5 cents per share, taking the full year dividend to 7 cents per share. However, that was a reduction of 3 cents per share due to the restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
In FY21 the company is expecting its net profit after tax for FY21 to be in the range of $83 million to $85 million.
Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT)
Buy now, pay later business Splitit announced that it is forming a partnership with QuickFee Ltd (ASX: QFE). It will see 'advice now, pay later' interest-free instalments launched for accounting firms and law firms.
No applications are required as no new credit is being offered to clients. Splitit will be integrated directly into Quickfee's payments portal. This service will initially be available to more than 1,000 accounting and law firms already using Quickfee.
Quickfee sees this as an opportunity because it expands its customer base to include smaller firms that typically fall outside of its credit risk framework. Advice businesses' clients will be able to more easily access legal, accounting and financial advice.
Splitit said it was not able to determine how material this partnership will be.
The Splitit share price finished flat today.
