The Australian share market has ended a three-day winning streak amid mixed earnings reports, with supermarket chain Woolworths making an annual profit, but travel firms such as Qantas and Flight Centre posting coronavirus-linked losses.

The ASX 200 was down 0.6 per cent to 7,488 at 2:20 pm AEST, while the All Ordinaries had fallen 0.5 per cent to 7,771.

Technology and consumer staples made an afternoon turnaround. 

Whitehaven Coal (+5.9pc) was the best performer on the ASX 200 despite swinging from profit to loss for the year because of lower sales and writedowns at its Narrabri mine in New South Wales. 

The coal miner made an annual after-tax loss of nearly $544 million. 

There was no final dividend payout for investors.

Link Administration (-12.7pc) did the worst after it posted an annual after-tax loss of $163.4 million. 

Shares fell even though it announced a $150 million share buyback. 

A number of stocks traded without the rights to their dividend payout, including electronics retailer JB Hifi, gold miner Newcrest Mining and property website REA Group. 

Woolworths profit and buyback

Supermarket giant Woolworths saw sales rise for the 2021 financial year as online sales soared by more than half despite coronavirus challenges including supermarkets now facing worker shortages as COVID-19 positive staff go into isolation.

Net profit last financial year jumped by nearly 78 per cent to just over $2 billion. 

Woolworths' chief executive Brad Banducci said it was "another challenging year for our team" and vaccination rates were the key to the economic future.

"It has become clear that vaccination is key to the safety of our team and the easing of restrictions, and we are committed to supporting vaccination efforts across the broader community," he said.

Investors will get a higher final dividend payout of $0.55 a share along with a $2 billion share buyback in the wake of it spinning off its drinks and poker machines business Endeavour Group in June. 

Woolworths shares rose 1 per cent to $41.23 over lunchtime. 

Endeavour made a net profit in 2021 of $445 million with online sales rising by one-third. 

Endeavour Group shares fell 1.5 per cent to $7.10 at 1:40pm AEST.

Qantas 'diabolical' COVID loss  

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The coronavirus brought the travel industry to its knees in a year that Qantas boss Alan Joyce called "diabolical".

Qantas took a $12 billion hit from the COVID-19 crisis because of the closure of international borders and coronavirus restrictions at home.

Not surprisingly, investors get no dividend payout for the year.

Qantas shares rose 3.1 per cent to $5.02 in early afternoon trade.

Flight Centre loss

Another firm that suffered during the coronavirus pandemic was travel agency Flight Centre, which made an annual net loss of $433 million, although it was smaller than the $662 million loss in 2020. 

Revenue slumped by nearly 80 per cent hit with the company hit hard by the end of the Federal Government's JobKeeper wage subsidy.

Flight Centre boss Graham Turner said 2021 was "another challenging year.....but conditions have gradually started to improve". 

The travel agency said increasing vaccination rates helped its recovery gain momentum. 

Investors get no dividend payout for the year.

Flight Centre shares rose 4 per cent to $17 in early afternoon trade.

A2 Milk loss

Milk producer A2 Milk said revenue plunged by nearly one-third to $1.2 billion over last financial year. 

It saw net profit slump by 79 per cent to $80.7 million after stock writedowns.

A2 Milk said COVID-19 had no significant impact on its business.

A2 shares fell 9.6 per cent to $6.20 at 1:40pm AEST after it warned of continued uncertainty in supply chains and growth in China, its biggest market.

COVID-19 restrictions have mainly wiped out its informal diagou trade.

IOOF loss

Investment firm IOOF made a statutory loss of $143.5 million for 2021 partly because of a goodwill writedown and the costs of buying investment firm MLC from the National Australia Bank. 

Investors get a final dividend of 11.5 cents a share. 

IOOF shares fell 8.7 per cent to $4.64 at 1:40pm AEST.

Qube profit 

Logistics and transport company Qube saw net profit for 2021 rise nearly 5 per cent to $91.6 million on an increase in revenue. 

Qube said the result reflected high volumes of trade across its markets including containers, grain, forestry and energy products. 

Qube shares fell 2 per cent to $2.99 over lunchtime. 

Fruit and vegetable grower Costa Group saw net profit for the first half of 2021 come in at $37.5 million although revenue was flat. 

Investors get an interim dividend of 4 cents a share. 

Costa's shares fell 5.9 per cent to $3.19. 

South Korea lifts interest rates

South Korea's central bank has raised official interest rates by one quarter of a percentage point (0.25 per cent).

Bank of Korea (BOK) governor Lee Ju-yeol and other board members lifted the seven-day repurchase rate to 0.75 per cent from a record low of 0.5 per cent.

The BOK cut rates to the record low in May last year. 

Inflationary pressures are building around the world as the global economy rebounds from the pandemic.

The Australian dollar slipped 0.2 per cent to 72.57 US cents at 1:40pm AEST.

Spot gold dropped to $US1,787.71 an ounce.

Brent crude oil rose 1 per cent overnight but dipped in Asian trade to $US71.90 a barrel.

Women on every ASX 200 board 

A new milestone has been reached for Australia's top 200 companies.

For the first time in history, there are no all-male boards among ASX 200 companies, according to the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).

In 2015, 28 boards had no women directors.

But now the last two all-male mining boards have just appointed women. 

When the AICD began its quarterly reporting of women on ASX 200 boards in 2015, there were 28 all-male boards.

AICD CEO Angus Armour said Australia's top companies needed to continue to increase board diversity. 

"This is an historical milestone for Australia that should be celebrated," he said.

The AICD works with the 30 Per Cent Club, which campaigns to have at least one-third board of positions filled by women.

30 Per Cent Club Australia chief Nicola Wakefield Evans said when the push for gender diversity on the ASX 200 began there was a view there was not enough qualified women to meet the target. 

"The calibre of women on our leading boards is exceedingly high, from those who are well established to emerging directors achieving their first listed role."

The AICD is pushing for at least 40 per cent of director seats to be held by both men and women, with flexibility over the remaining 20 per cent of seats.

New record highs in US ahead of central banker meeting 

US stocks have hit record highs ahead of the annual meeting of global central banks, with no wind back of stimulus expected just yet.

Financial stocks and chipmakers helped to push the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes to record closing highs. 

The Dow Jones index added 0.1 per cent to 35,406, the S&P 500 put on 0.2 per cent to 4,496 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.15 per cent to 15,042.

The session marked the S&P 500's 51st record high close so far this year.

Investors are looking to the annual Jackson Hole Symposium, being held virtually this year, for signs from US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell that the US central bank will not ease back on stimulus and raise interest rates sooner than forecast.

That was reinforced by tame economic data which showed that new orders for core capital goods were little changed last month, suggesting that business investment in equipment could slow down after robust growth earlier in the year. 

David Carter, chief investment officer at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York, said it was a quiet week for investors. 

"(The) expectation is that Fed won't scare markets, and will announce only a cautious tapering."

Rising US Treasury yields boosted interest rate sensitive financial stocks and sectors that stand to gain most from economic revival, such as smaller firms and transport stocks. 

More companies are forcing workers to get coronavirus vaccines or penalising them if they do not after the Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

The Pentagon and Delta Air Lines have mandated vaccinations and other firms such as car maker Ford are expected to follow suit.

European markets 

In Europe, stock markets ended mixed. 

The FTSE 100 index put on  0.3pc to 7,150, the CAC 40 gained 0.2pc to 6,678, and the DAX dropped 0.3pc to 15,861

ABC/Reuters