Macquarie shares hit hard as it flags soft start to the year

She also said there were large one-off gains in the previous year, which meant that the first quarter profits were being compared to a higher-than-usual benchmark.

Macquarie’s commodities business faced a significant downgrade, with income expected to be in-line with, rather than above, the 2022 financial year.

This comes after a year of strong trading activity across gas and power, which has eased as storage levels have increased, and economic activity has slowed.

Macquarie chair Glenn Stevens said economic conditions would probably remain difficult in the near-term.

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“Inflation has so far remained troublingly high in most markets, and central banks around the world are in a once-in-a-generation struggle to restore the price stability that was such an important feature of the most recent era of growth,” he said.

“For both capital markets and communities, much hinges on success in that struggle.”

Despite mixed results in Macquarie’s banking and financial services business, Wikramanayake said that part of the company remained resilient and that earnings had improved.

Macquarie’s home loan portfolio was up 2 per cent in the June quarter compared to the March quarter, and its business banking loan portfolio was up 8 per cent.

Stevens said that while last year’s record result was partly generated by unusual circumstances, the long-term trend in the company’s earnings reflected management’s efforts over the years.

More to come

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