ASX reporting season live updates: Everything you need to know about companies revealing results today

Zip Co. shares notched their biggest drop in more than a decade after the Australian digital payments company guided toward flat cash earnings growth in the second half of the financial year.

The stock plunged as much as 36 per cent, the most since November 2014, after saying that a measure of earnings in the second half would be broadly in line with what it recorded in the six months ended December 31.

The firm reported cash earnings of $124.3 million in the first half, according to an ASX statement this morning.

Zip also said net bad debts rose to 1.73 per cent of total transaction volume during the half, up from 1.56 per cent a year ago.

BDO chief economist Anders Magnusson said today’s unemployment figures will keep the RBA “on alert”.

The jobless rate was steady at 4.1 per cent — a number that will not ease the RBA’s concerns about inflation.

Mr Magnusson said “the labour market remains tight and the economy is still operating close to capacity”.

“This departs from the RBA’s forecast and increases the risk that interest rate rises will be brought forward,” he said.

“This will be a concern for the RBA. A labour market this tight raises the risk that wage and price pressures become more persistent, particularly if households and businesses expect higher inflation to continue.”

He said a May hike was now more likely.

The Aussie jobs market has posted a solid start to 2026, with the unemployment rate steady at 4.1 per cent in January — a number that will not ease the Reserve Bank’s concerns about inflation.

That was unchanged from December, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Employment lifted by 18,000 through the month.

The tight jobs market has been a key reason many economists expect the Reserve Bank may need to increase interest rates again this year after hiking the cash rate from 3.6 per cent to 3.85 per cent two weeks ago.

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Health insurer Medibank has lifted its payout to investors despite reporting an 11 per cent in net profit of $302.9 million.

It said the business remained resilient despite a challenging economic environment.

It paid out $3.5 billion in claims for the six months to the end of December while net resident policyholder growth jumped by 38,300 - up 1.9 per cent.

“Australia has never spent more on healthcare and yet in some parts the system is failing the community,” said CEO David Koczkar.

“Governments, operators, clinicians and patients know the system is under strain. But despite this, the pace of reform is far too slow.

“In the absence of meaningful change in the broader system, we will continue to drive this change with our partners, supporting both the private and public systems.”

Medibank will pay a fully franked interim dividend of 8.3c a share, up 6.4 per cent from a year earlier.

The Australian sharemarket is consolidating its position above 9000 points after the first 30 minutes of trade, rising 76.4 points - up 0.9 per cent - to 9083.4.

Eight of the 11 sectors were in the green, with discretionary stocks leading the laggards - down almost 3 per cent.

Energy was up 2.2 per cent, industrials 1.8 per cent and telcos 1.7 per cent. Miners and the banks also added about 1.3 per cent.

WA-based contractor NRW was among the big early winners, rising 13. 3 per cent after it lifted its payout off the back of a high profit result for the half.

Zip Co, Lovisa Holdings, Goodman Group and Medibank suffered the biggest losses, with Zip down a staggering 32 per cent.

WA diversified juggernaut Wesfarmers was also among the top-five worst-performers, down almost 6 per cent despite reporting a healthy hike in half-year profit and a bigger interim payout.

Raleigh Finlayson’s Genesis Minerals has quadrupled net profit as gold production ramps up at the growing miner.

Net profit after tax for the six months ended December 31 rose four-fold to $238m, with production up from 93,075oz in the prior period to 147,139oz.

Average sales prices of $5,590 per ounce drove sales revenues of $820.3m.

“The combination of production growth, tight cost control and a strong gold price has culminated in abundant cashflow, record profits and an extremely robust balance sheet,” recently promoted executive chair Mr Finlayson said.

“This means we are ideally positioned to continue unlocking the huge growth opportunities we have established, ensuring our cycle of expanding production and cash generation continues.”

The miner said planning for Tower Hill, a key major growth project in Leonora, was running ahead of schedule.

Rio Tinto has taken majority control of Canada’s Nemaska Lithium as part of a push to invest more in Quebec projects tied to the battery metal.

The global mining company made several investments to bring its stake up to 54 per cent of Nemaska, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report.

Rio got its initial 50 per cent stake in Nemaska through its $US6.7 billion acquisition of Arcadium Lithium, which closed about a year ago. The mining company expects to invest about $US300 million in 2026 in its Quebec lithium business.

It also has plans for larger outlays in the few years after that, including advancing its Galaxy hard rock lithium development in the James Bay region, an open-pit mine that would have an estimated life of 15 to 20 years.

Production is expected to start in 2028 in Becancour. Nemaska entered a long-term supply agreement with Ford in 2023.

“Rio Tinto’s activities in Quebec play an important role in our ambition to take our world-class lithium business to the next level of growth and performance,” Jerome Pecresse, the head of the aluminum and lithium unit, said.

The company said that both the Galaxy project and Nemaska’s Whabouchi mine, also in northern Quebec, are still under review, and the evaluation is expected to be completed in the first half of 2026.

The firm said in a strategic update in December that it expects to spend $US1 billion annually over three years on lithium growth in Canada and Argentina, and more than double its lithium production capacity to about 200,000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate by 2028. Becancour’s output would be about 32,000t a year.

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Fashion jewellery retailer Lovisa has posted a 2.6 per cent increase in half-year profit to $58.4 million.

Total revenue was $500.7m, up 23.3 per cent on the same time last year in what the retailer said was a result of the continued growth in the store network.

Shares in the company were down 13 per cent to $26.96 in early trade.

Lovisa increased its interim dividend by 3¢ from a year ago to 53¢.

“Lovisa has once again been able to deliver strong growth in the underlying global Lovisa business, with the highlight another exceptional gross margin performance and the continued momentum in the store rollout through the period,” global chief executive John Cheston said.

Mining equipment rental group Emeco says it is poised for growth after booking a 15 per cent jump net profit to $39 million for the first half.

Revenue for the period was up 9 per cent versus the same time a year earlier to $421m, delivering earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $155m - up 7 per cent.

Boss Ian Testrow - who is consistantly among the list of top 10 best-paid WA executives - said the “very solid” performance consolidated the strong gains achieved in the last half of 2024/25.

“This is an excellent result given the magnitude of the earnings improvement in FY25 following the business model reset in FY24, and I am extremely proud of the Emeco team in maintaining this high level of performance,” he said.

“The focus on cost and capital discipline has generated almost $230M in operating cash flow1 over the last four half-year periods.

“This has transformed our balance sheet with leverage improving from the top end of our new long-term target range to being comfortably at the bottom end. “

Mr Testrow said operating conditions in the mining sector remained positive, with a “robust medium-term production volume outlook”, despite recent commodity price volatility.

Emeco said it was prioritising growth opportunities over the next 12 months and did not decalre an interim dividend.

The company six months ago revealed it had been looked over by several parties, though none had put forward any proposal capable of being considered by Emeco’s board.

Improving prices for lithium helped PLS turn a $69 million loss for the first half of the previous financial year into a $33m profit for the six months to the end of December.

A 7 per cent rise in sales of battery material spodumene concentrate for the period to 446,000 tonnes pulled in $624m for the half-year - up 47 per cent - as realised prices for 6 per cent-grade product jumped from $US780 a tonne s a year ago to $US1105/t.

Undertlying earnings were up 241 per cent to $253m.

But the board of PLS has held off paying an interim dividend, saying its priority was to preserve balance sheet strength and financial flexibility through the price cycle.

“Subject to sustained supportive lithium pricing and continued free cash flow generation, the board will be well positioned to consider a dividend at the time of the FY26 full year results, in accordance with the company’s capital management framework,” it said.

CEO Dale Henderson said the solid result was driven by higher realised pricing, reliable operating performance and continued cost discipline, with unit operating costs declining 8 per cent to $563/t FOB.

PLS ended the period with $954m in cash and about $1.6 billion in total liquidity.