The Australian share market has ended Monday slightly down after enduring a dip in last week's trade.

The ASX 200 opened the day 0.2 per cent down and, despite some rises throughout the day, dipped again in the afternoon.

It ended the day 0.2 per cent down to 6,781 points.

The All Ords closed flat at 7,062.

On Friday the ASX 200 suffered its second-worst day of 2021, with a loss of 1.3 per cent.

Energy stocks performed well. BHP was Monday's top performer with a gain of 3.5 per cent, while Beach Energy was up 1.6 per cent.

Travel stocks also saw some positive movement. That came as borders reopen again after Victoria's snap COVID-19 lockdown and the travel bubble with New Zealand resumes.

Webjet gained 9 per cent, although it still has a while to recover from its last high in December, when the nation was feeling even more optimistic about travelling.

Qantas is up 4.3 per cent just a few days before the Australian icon is set to report its profits amid the ongoing pandemic.

The airline still has a long way to go before returning to its pre-pandemic share price. It has already been flagging that it does not expect international travel to return until later in 2020 at least.

Technology and healthcare stocks took a hit on Monday.

The worst performers were ARB Corp (-4.9pc), Appen (-4.6pc) and the pharmaceuticals provider Ansell (-4.4pc)

Food producer soars on results

Costa Group's share price rose 11.7 per cent in one day after positive results.

The fruit and vegetables grower and packer took a hit to its profit in 2019 amid drought conditions, debt, oversupply and issues with supplying to China. Its share price tumbled sharply after that announcement.

But its 2020 full-year results, announced on Monday, showed it had turned around its fortunes to boast a full-year statutory net profit of more than $60 million.

As it recovered from drought-growing conditions, the average Australian's enduring love of the humble avocado helped boost sales for the conglomerate farming company.

"Higher avocado pricing contributed to positive performance versus budget," the company announced.

It was a similar story for blueberries, which saw a price increase during COVID-19.

Costa Group said it grew double the amount of blueberries in 2020 than the year before, with 1,700 tonnes of the sweet little berry grown and sold.

It also had success with its citrus production, such as lemons and oranges.

"It should be noted that China trade tensions are having a minimal impact on our citrus exports, with less than 5 per cent of our total citrus exports going to China."

Private health insurer boosts profit

NIB recorded a 16 per cent increase in net profit, but is warning that there may be a catch-up in people seeking treatment once the threat of COVID-19 abates further.

The company posted a net profit after tax of $66.2 million, even though total group revenue fell 1.1 per cent to $1.3 billion, as its travel, international student and worker insurance businesses were hit hard by the pandemic.

Claims expenses rose a mere 0.9 per cent.

The insurer attributes part of the smaller-than-usual increase to people delaying non-essential surgeries due to COVID-19.

"Profitability has been slightly distorted by COVID-19 and consequential delays in treatment and claims, which is still playing out," NIB chief executive Mark Fitzgibbon said.

On the other hand, NIB reported a 2.7 per cent increase in member numbers, growing premium income by 2.2 per cent despite a six-month postponement of the 2020 premium increase.

Mr Fitzgibbon said a pleasing detail of the membership increase was the age of those joining, with more than half under 40 years old.

"Our experience helps counter all the negative talk about the value of private health insurance, and COVID-19 has clearly raised people’s awareness about the risk of disease and the need for protection," he added.

NIB announced an unchanged interim dividend of 10 cents per share.

Its share price jumped 6.4 per cent to $5.74.

Bluescope Steel rises on profit announcement

BlueScope Steel reported a 78 per cent increase in its half-year profit.

The steelmaker said its net profit rose 78 per cent to $330 million in the six months to December 31, propelled by booming Australian demand for steel products as residential construction accelerated and the big shift to regional centres brought extra demand.

Its share price ended the day 2.3 per cent higher.

This came as the resources company also announced a chief executive for climate change within the group.

BoQ to buy super funds' ME Bank

The Bank of Queensland has confirmed it will buy ME Bank for $1.3 billion. (More on that story here.)

BoQ has been in a trading halt since last week when it started revenue raising for the speculated deal. The bank said would fund the deal via a $1.35 billion equity raising.

The deal is expected to be finalised by August.

Meanwhile, shares in Macquarie Group hit near a one-year high after announcing that its FY2021 profit should be as much as 10 per cent higher than the previous year.

The asset management and investment banking giant said there had been a rise in demand for gas and power in North America as a result of extreme winter conditions.

Unusually cold weather in several US states has led to days of electricity outages, with Texas particularly hard hit.

"Extreme winter weather conditions in North America have significantly increased short-term client demand for Macquarie's capabilities in maintaining critical physical supply across the commodity complex," the company said in a statement.