ASX 200 rises 0.4%

The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX:XJO) grew by 0.4% on Thursday. Buy now, pay later operators like Afterpay Ltd (ASX:APT) jumped today.

young boys open mouthed in front of shares graph

Image source: Getty Images

You’re reading a free article with opinions that may differ from The Motley Fool’s Premium Investing Services. Become a Motley Fool member today to get instant access to our top analyst recommendations, in-depth research, investing resources, and more. Learn More

The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) went up by 0.4% today to 6,715 points.

Here are some of the highlights from the ASX:

Australian Ethical Investment Limited (ASX: AEF)

Australian Ethical announced its quarterly update for the period ending 31 December 2020.

It said that its funds under management (FUM) grew by another 16.9% to $5.05 billion, up from $4.32 billion at 30 September 2020.

It received net inflows of $270 million for the quarter.

The company attributed the increase to strong investment performance and strong net flows.

In the financial year to date to 31 December 2020, FUM has grown by 24.6%.

The Australian Ethical share price went up more than 1% in reaction to this.

Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX: PME)

The Pro Medicus share price went up 15% after revealing that it won a new contract in the US.

The healthcare imaging company announced that it had won a seven-year contract with Intermountain Healthcare worth $40 million.

Intermountain is the largest healthcare provider in the Intermountain West region of Utah, Idaho and Nevada.

Pro Medicus' Visage will replace the legacy PACS and other specialty systems across the 24 hospitals and more than 200 clinics. The contract includes the Visage 7 Viewer and the Visage 7 Open Archive. The Visage 7 platform will be fully deployed in the public cloud, using the Google Cloud Platform.

Planning for the rollout is to begin in the third quarter of FY21, with data migration commencing immediately by Visage's engineering team. The first sites will be scheduled to go-live shortly thereafter.

Pro Medicus CEO Dr Sam Hupert said: "This is a very important deal for us, not only because of its size and scope, it will provide us with a material footprint in Intermountain West, previously an untapped region for us. It also validates our decision to engineer Visage 7 from the ground up to be natively cloud capable, with Intermountain deploying both the Visage 7 Viewer and Visage 7 Open Archive as part of our Visage in the cloud offering, making this one of the largest cloud-based PACS implementations in the world.

"This is our fifth major contract win in six months. We believe this validates our belief that we have unique, market leading technology which, coupled with our expanded product portfolio and native cloud capability, has significantly increased our total addressable market in our key jurisdictions of North America, Europe and Australia."

Bell Financial Group Ltd (ASX: BFG)

The Bell Financial share price went up 3.6% after giving a profit update for FY20.

It said in the year to 31 December 2020 that revenue went up 18% to $299 million, funds under advice (FUA) grew 9% to $63.9 billion, net profit after tax (NPAT) rose 44% to $46.7 million and the earnings per share (EPS) went up 44% to 14.6 cents.

The company will give a full update of its result in February.

Buy now, pay later operators rise

The entire buy now, pay later industry got a boost today after global competitor Affirm jumped after its own initial public offering (IPO).

Australia's biggest player, Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT), saw its share price grow by almost 10%, the Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) share price rose by 5%, the Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL) share price went up 7.5% and the Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT) share price rose 1.8%.

Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and recommends Pro Medicus Ltd. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Australian Ethical Investment Ltd. and ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia's parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. recommends Sezzle Inc. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Australian Ethical Investment Ltd., Pro Medicus Ltd., and Sezzle Inc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

More on Share Market News

A woman wearing a flowing red dress, poses dramatically on a beach with the sea in the background.
Share Market News

Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today

It was a disastrous session for ASX investors this Thursday...

Read more »

A beautiful ocean vista is shown with a woman whose back is to the camera holding her arms up in triumph as she stands at the top of a rock feeling thrilled that ASX 200 shares are reaching multi-year high prices today
52-Week Highs

3 ASX 300 shares smashing new highs while the market dives

These three shares are running hot amid a market meltdown.

Read more »

Man pointing an upward line on a bar graph symbolising a rising share price.
Share Gainers

Why Champion Iron, EBR Systems, Mesoblast, and Patriot Battery Metals shares are surging today

These shares are avoiding the market selloff on Thursday. But why?

Read more »

Frustrated stock trader screaming while looking at mobile phone, symbolising a falling share price.
Share Fallers

Why AGL, CBA, Deep Yellow, and Megaport shares are sinking today

These shares are falling more than most today. What's going on?

Read more »

A wide-eyed man peers out from a small gap in his black zipped jumper conveying fear over the weak Zip share price
BNPL shares

Why did the Zip share price just crash 9%?

Investors seem to be singling Zip out for punishment today...

Read more »

Unsure man analysing data on laptop.
Share Market News

Why is the ASX 200 down by so much today?

ASX 200 investors are favouring their sell buttons today. But why?

Read more »

A man holding a cup of coffee puts his thumb up and smiles while at laptop.
Broker Notes

Guess which ASX 50 share is a top buy for 2025

Bell Potter has just slapped a buy rating on this stock. Let's see why.

Read more »

a woman holds a facebook like thumbs up sign high above her head. She has a very happy smile on her face.
Broker Notes

Goldman Sachs just put a buy rating on this ASX 200 share

The broker has good things to say about this 'high-quality' company.

Read more »