Despite fears of a spending slowdown, customers have still been opening their wallets, according to electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi. Their investors will pocket a final dividend of $1.53. Continued demand for online shopping is being played out in the skies too, with Qantas expanding its freight division for this reason.

Aerial imagery company Nearmap jumped nearly 25 per cent after receiving a $1.1 billion takeover bid from US private equity firm Thomas Bravo. While the share price rallied on Monday, its closing figure of $1.89 was below the bid price of $2.10 per share.

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Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine, oil companies have seen soaring demand and ever-climbing prices – but Beach Energy was hammered amid investor disappointment about its fall in production. On the materials front, steel producer BlueScope rose 3.9 per cent after its full-year results revealed its profits had more than doubled to a record $2.8 billion.

CarSales.com’s results also impressed investors, who pushed its share price up 5.8 per cent after the business posted a 27 per cent profit increase.

Power generation and energy storage company Genex, which Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar has been trying to acquire, also slid into a trading halt on Monday, pending a further announcement.

Westpac was the only big four bank to finish in the red after releasing a largely positive Q3 update that didn’t make any mention of profits, margins, or cost-cutting. The bank on Monday said credit quality had improved in the June quarter: its stressed loans as a share of its total exposures dipped 4 basis points to 1.06 per cent.

The share of customers who were more than 90 days behind on their repayments fell 5 basis points to 0.83 per cent. Westpac said it had made limited changes to its provisions, and it published “base case” economic forecasts that pointed to a soft landing for the economy.

The positive start to the week comes after the benchmark index posted its fourth week of gains last week.

Wall Street capped a choppy week of trading with a broad stock market rally on Friday, as the S&P 500 notched its fourth consecutive weekly gain.

The S&P 500 closed 1.7 per cent higher, for a 3.3 per cent weekly gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3 per cent, while the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 index of smaller companies both closed 2.1 per cent higher. Each index also posted a solid weekly gain.

Tweet of the day:

Quote of the day: “It becomes less and less discretionary - that is where they are going to spend their money, if they are going to spend it.” That’s from JB Hi-Fi boss Terry Smart, who says things like phones and computers no longer count as ‘discretionary’ spending.