11 March 2009 | Nabila Ahmed and Khia Mercer | The Australian Financial Review
Asset write-downs have knocked profits, and the tough operating climate will erode earnings in the six months ahead.
11 March 2009 | Robert Guy rguy@afr.com.au | The Australian Financial Review
The dying days of summer yielded the downbeat reporting season many expected, with most companies bunkering down for a winter of discontent as the full force of the wild storm sweeping the global economy bears down on corporate Australia.
11 March 2009 | Glenn Mumford | The Australian Financial Review
All told, it could have been a lot worse. Sure, there was not a lot of gain. But, on balance, a lot less pain than could have been expected. A reporting season that caught the tone of a deteriorating economy without being immersed by it.
11 March 2009 | Michael Vaughan | The Australian Financial Review
The fall in earnings experienced by most of Australia's mining sector is expected to continue well into 2009, providing further impetus for consolidation and more foreign investment as many companies battle to survive the downturn.
11 March 2009 | Michael Vaughan | The Australian Financial Review
It is hard not to be pessimistic about the short-term outlook for the mining sector.
11 March 2009 | Paul Garvey and Jeffrey Hutton | The Australian Financial Review
The $A's decline has made exporters happy but piled on new worries for the Australian importers.
11 March 2009 | Paul Garvey | The Australian Financial Review
Business is booming for firms that advise companies on how to manage their exposure to currencies. The rapid decline of the Australian dollar has left heads spinning, particularly when it comes to hedging and the use of other instruments designed to protect companies from the vagaries of currency markets.
11 March 2009 | Matthew Cranston | The Australian Financial Review
The top 19 trusts have written down $10.8 billion in property valuations. And analysts say there may be more to come.
11 March 2009 | Robert Harley | The Australian Financial Review
Few of the real estate investment trust (REIT) results surprised. The valuations and impairments were well flagged. What is driving down the prices is the ugly outlook.
11 March 2009 | Matthew Drummond | The Australian Financial Review
Thicker margins, more market share, greater pricing power: things are looking brighter for the banking sector. Years of being undercut by smaller, nimbler non-bank lenders have given way to an era when size matters and the major banks are letting everyone know who's boss.
11 March 2009 | Matthew Drummond | The Australian Financial Review
A return to profits is within the grasp of the struggling insurance industry, which is beginning to make its customers share some of its pain with stiff rises in premiums.
11 March 2009 | Sue Mitchell and Carrie LaFrenz | The Australian Financial Review
Payouts have slipped and look destined to dip further, as companies clamour to conserve precious funds.
11 March 2009 | Simon Evans and Dominic White | The Australian Financial Review
Australian listed companies have wiped close to $75 billion from the value of their asset bases in the past few weeks, and the sea of red ink fromwrite-downs reflects the sobering new reality of a grim economy.
11 March 2009 | Katja Buhrer | The Australian Financial Review
The rush by Australian blue chips to clean up balance sheets tarnished by the credit crunch has prompted a barrage of equity capital raisings so far this year. But with the top end of town stepping aside, the frantic pace of issuance is expected to ease.
11 March 2009 | Jane Searle and David Ciampa | The Australian Financial Review
Investors in the battered small caps sector lived by a simple maxim in the reporting season: sell now, ask questions later.
11 March 2009 | Peter Wells | The Australian Financial Review
Australian companies are slashing thousands of jobs and paring back operations in a race to cut their cost bases as deteriorating economic conditions crimp top-line revenues and crunch profit margins.
