Tyro (ASX:TYR) plunges after scathing Viceroy report: Aus shares close flat

After edging lower at the open, the Australian share market had a sea-saw session which ended flat. Most of the sectors ended in the red. Information technology led the day, capping 2.6 per cent in gains.

The S&P/ASX200 index

At the closing bell the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 0.1 points higher to finish at 6,715.

Over the week, the market has lost 43 points or 0.6 per cent.

Futures markets

Dow futures are suggesting a fall of 136 points.
S&P 500 futures are eyeing a dip of 15 points.
The Nasdaq futures are eyeing a fall of 30 points.
And the ASX200 futures are eyeing a flat start on Monday morning.

Economic news

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says the total value of new loan commitments for housing reached a record high in November 2020. The figure rose 5.6 per cent to $24 billion during the month.

Broker moves

Credit Suisse rates IOOF Holdings (ASX:IFL) as an outperform, with a price target of $5.00. The broker believes confidence is returning to the sector after the disruption caused by the Royal Commission. IOOF is Credit Suisse’s top pick amongst its peers. It does however harbour concerns over a recovery in flows, revenue margin pressure and attrition, but considers these are more than factored into the share price. Shares in IOOF Holdings (ASX:IFL) closed 0.5 per cent higher at $3.70.

Company news

Shares in fintech, Tyro Payments (ASX:TYR) plummeted today after Viceroy Research released a scathing report on the company’s recent connectivity issue with respect to some of its EFTPOS terminals. The activist short selling research group claims the outage is far worse than the company is admitting. It warns that the impact of the issue is "unquantifiable" and that it expects Tyro’s shares “to decline significantly in this quarter”. It alleges that over 50 per cent of Tyro’s terminals across Australia are offline. Viceroy says the company “has no disaster recovery plan and has left businesses, including medical facilities, without any means to collect payment from customers.” This comes just 2 days after Tyro announced that the root cause of the issue had been identified and that 70 per cent of its terminals were unaffected by the incident. Following the report, Tyro’s shares dropped 11.8 per cent before the company requested a trading halt, ending at $2.32.

Australian buy-now, pay-later player, Payright (ASX:PYR), has reported a quarter-on-quarter jump of 28 per cent in gross merchandise value to $20.6 million for the December quarter.

Tilt Renewables (ASX:TLT) says quarterly production results rose 62 per cent in the December 2020 quarter compared to the same period the previous year.

Small cap Perth based miner, Medusa Mining (ASX:MML) has reported 2 fatalities at its Gold Mine in the Philippines. This comes on the back of 3 fatalities at the mining site last year.

Blackstone Minerals (ASX:BSX) is planning to spin off some of its non-core gold assets into a new initial public offering via its Australian subsidiary, Codrus Minerals.

Wall Street

Wrapped up our four trading days this week lower: The Dow Jones lost 0.3 per cent, The S&P 500 lost 0.8 per cent and the tech heavy Nasdaq lost 0.7 per cent.

Best and worst performers

The best-performing sector was Information Technology, gaining 2.6 per cent, while the worst-performing sector was Consumer Discretionary, dropping 1.3 per cent.

The best-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Afterpay (ASX:APT), rising 10.04 per cent to $133.15, followed by shares in Scentre Group (ASX:SCG) and Vicinity Centres (ASX:VCX).

The worst-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Polynovo (ASX:PNV), dropping 8.3 per cent to $2.54, followed by shares in Resolute Mining (ASX:RSG) and ResMed (ASX:RMD).

Asian markets

Mixed: Japan’s Nikkei has lost 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is tracking flat, and the Shanghai Composite has lost 0.5 per cent.

Wall Street

Wall Street finished our last four trading days lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.3 per cent, the S&P500 lost 0.8 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.7 per cent.

Commodities

Gold is trading at US$1,854 an ounce.
Iron ore added 1.3 per cent to $172.36.
Iron ore futures are pointing to a rise of 2.8 per cent.
Light crude is down $0.09 cents to $51.27.
One Australian dollar is buying 77.62 US cents.

Source: Finance News Network