Australia Daily Briefing

The Market Herald reported that tech stocks led the ASX 200 session higher while financials underperformed. The divergence is consistent with a rising-rate environment where tech's earnings-growth story provides insulation from NIM-expansion questions being asked of the Big Four banks. Sarah's read: the financials underperformance amid rate rises is counterintuitive — banks typically benefit from NIM expansion — but the market is now weighing rising mortgage delinquency provisioning costs against the NIM tailwind, and that credit quality concern is winning the day.

CBA — Australia's largest mortgage lender — acknowledged rising late mortgage payments, attributing them directly to inflation and the RBA's aggressive rate hikes, while simultaneously defending the broader economy's resilience. This is the dual signal the market has been watching for: the first major bank admitting that credit quality is deteriorating, while trying to contain the narrative. The implication for Westpac, ANZ, and NAB is clear — their own mortgage books face the same trajectory, and Q4 results will force similar admissions or provisioning upgrades.

Superloop reported FY27 underlying EBITDA growth guidance of 21-27% to $148m-$156m as its customer base expanded to 954,000. For Australian telecom investors, Superloop's execution is becoming a credible alternative growth narrative to the flat-to-declining trajectory at Telstra. The 20%+ EBITDA growth rate is rare in Australian telecom — it reflects a structural shift from low-value wholesale NBN to higher-value direct consumer relationships. Watch the subscriber growth trajectory and churn rate as the leading indicators of whether this EBITDA guidance is achievable.