Business news

    ASX closed flat; Afterpay hit by RBA regulation review; Aussie Broadband rallied on acquisition interest.

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    Highlights
    • The ASX200 closed Friday?s session just 0.1 point higher at 7415.50.
    • Afterpay dipped following RBA review & suggested changes to regulation.
    • Aussie Broadband rose 5% after confirming Over The Wire takeover interest.

    The Australian market recovered morning losses to close just 0.1 point higher today at 7415.50 boosted by strong gains for consumer discretionary stocks. The energy sector was the worst performing sector today, closing the session down 2.15%. For the week the ASX gained 0.73%.

    The tech sector closed lower on Friday as Megaport fell 2.83%, Iress dropped 1.65% and Afterpay finished the session just shy of 0.5% lower.

    Bitcoin is trading 3.04% lower over the last 24-hours at US$62,834.24 at 4:30pm AEDT.

    Afterpay took a slight hit today after the Reserve Bank of Australia posted its conclusions paper from the review of the Retail Payments Regulation. The RBA?s report included a number of suggested changes, with the key one being an amendment to the ?no-surcharge? rule where the board of the RBA concluded BNPL providers should remove their no-surcharge rules so that merchants can apply a surcharge to those payments if they wish.

    Making headlines, Aussie Broadband shares rallied 5% today after the telecommunications carrier confirmed it is in preliminary talks to acquire IT and telco services provider Over The Wire. Aussie Broadband completed a $134m capital raise in September to go towards growth through mergers and acquisitions, which the company today confirmed was eyeing Over the Wire as the first takeover using the raised capital.

    And Tattarang, the investment firm of Australian mining magnate Andrew Twiggy Forrest, has purchased Gaia Retreat & Spa in the Byron Bay hinterland from co-founders Gregg Cave, Ruth Kalnin, Olivia Newton-John and Warwick Evans for a reported $30m.

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