Aussie ALL ORDINARIES Bounces Up

The ASX’s ALL ORDINARIES (INDEXASX: XAO)(ASX: XAO) index ended higher on Friday, with Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) and Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) ending firmly in the green.

All Ordinaries: up 0.5% at 6,055 points

All Ordinaries Movers

• Wesfarmers – up 6.3%
• South32 Ltd (ASX: S32) – 5.6%
• Premier Investments Limited (ASX: PMV) – up 6.1%
• Telstra – up 1.5%

All Ordinaries Losers

• Metcash Limited (ASX: MTS) – down 5.4%

Australian Investing News

Making waves around Aussie financial markets was news that Wesfarmers plans to sell its Coles supermarkets business. Wesfarmers bought The Coles Group back in 2007 and it has grown into one of Australia’s biggest retailers.

However, Wesfarmers, which also owns Bunnings Warehouse and Kmart, said it is selling most of Coles to pursue better growth opportunities. “It is now a mature and cash generative business, which is expected to have a strong balance sheet and dividend paying capacity,” Wesfarmers CEO Rob Scott said.

Read: “Wesfarmers Ltd Is Selling Coles“

Also making headlines was Solomon Lew’s Premier Investments, which owns JayJay’s, Peter Alexander, Smiggle and more. This morning, Premier Investments released its financial report to the ASX showing a 6.8% increase in revenue and a profit of almost $79 million, up 9%.

“Premier Investments has again delivered a very strong result…This is the first time the business has achieved an underlying EBIT above $100 million for a half,” Chairman Lew said.

Read more: “Premier Investments Just Reported A Profit Jump“

Shares of Metcash, the owner of IGA, Cellarbrations and Mitre 10, fell 5% after announcing to the market that Scott Marshall has been appointed the new chief executive of supermarkets & convenience after Steven Cain resigned to accept a position at the new Coles company.

Metcash said that Mr Cain had been commuting from Melbourne to Sydney each day and the new position will be based in Melbourne.

That’s a big commute!