Despite a 0.5% rise in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) to 7,029.4 points today, multiple companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) experienced significant share price declines.
Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN) faced a 16% decrease in its shares to 21 cents today. This followed an unexplained surge in its share price on Wednesday. The company confirmed there was no valid reason for this sudden increase, which likely triggered an investor sell-off.
Healius Ltd (ASX: HLS) also saw a decline in its share price today. Its shares fell by 6.5% to $1.85 following a broker note from Citi that reduced its price target by 28%.
Westpac Banking (NYSE:WBK) Corp (ASX: WBC)'s shares went ex-dividend and decreased by 2% to $21.26 today. Shareholders are set to receive a fully franked final dividend of 72 cents per share on December 19th.
The ASX tech sector was notably affected today with the S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology Index (ASX: XIJ) depreciating by 4.8%. This reflected the sector's sensitivity to earnings reports.
The epicenter of this downfall was Xero Limited (ASX: XRO), a cloud-based accounting software provider. Despite a half-year earnings report showing a 21% rise in revenues to $800 million, an NPAT of $54 million, and a 13% increase in subscribers to 3.95 million, its shares plummeted by 13.2% to close at $99.50 today. The company's performance failed to meet the high expectations set by CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy's promises of profitability and controlled growth. This disappointing performance had a ripple effect on other tech shares such as Weebit Nano Ltd (ASX: WBT), Life360 Inc (ASX: 360), and WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC), which also experienced losses.
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