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The local market has started the week in negative territory, closing Monday’s session down 0.21%, dragged lower by a sharp sell-off in consumer discretionary stocks amid the release of some disappointing half year results today. The energy sector on the other hand soared just under 2% today buoyed by an early rise in the price of oil amid reports Russia will cut production of the commodity.

Reporting season ramped up today with a number of big names reporting including JB Hi-Fi (ASX:JBH), Endeavour Group (ASX:EDV) and Carsales.com (ASX:CAR).

Endeavour Group (ASX:EDV) shares took flight following the release of the results as the company outlined its performance through the first restriction-free festive season in three years. For the first half of FY23, Endeavour Group reported group sales up 2.6% to $6.5bn, Group NPAT rose 17% to $364m which well exceeded consensus expectations, and a dividend per share of 14.3 cps was declared which is a premium of 14.4% on the PCP. CEO Steve Donohue attributed the strong results to customers returning to a more normal holiday period in December, and the return of domestic travel seeing regional and coastal town stores and hotels performing strongly.

Star Entertainment Group (ASX:SGR) tanked over 20% to an all-time low share price today after releasing disappointing, unaudited first half results and outlook this morning. The casino and hotel giant said it has been adversely impacted by several factors, in particular by increased operating restrictions from mid-September following the Bell Review and amendments to the NSW Casino Control Act. The company also blamed ongoing remediation actions and high costs for improved compliance, and increased competition for the poor results. For the half, The Star reported Sydney domestic revenue was down 13.5% on pre-COVID levels and will detail the full performance when the final results are released. The company did provide outlook for the remainder of FY23 with the expectation to report underlying EBITDA between $330m - $360m.

Monadelphous (ASX:MND) shares rallied today after the engineering group announced it has secured new contracts in the resources and energy sectors totalling around $200m, including with sector leaders like BHP Group (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto (AAX:RIO).

The winning stocks from today’s session were led by Insurance Australia Group (ASX:IAG) rallying 4.5% on the back of releasing H1 results, while Endeavour Group (ASX:EDV) added 4.11% and Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN) jumped 3.6% today. And on the losing end Star Entertainment Group (ASX:SGR) led the losses today plunging 20.8%, while Imugene (ASX:IMU) and Aurizon Holdings (ASX:AZJ) each fell 10.34% and 6.5% respectively.

The most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients today were BHP Group (ASX:BHP), New Hope Corporation (ASX:NHC) and Suncorp Group (ASX:SUN).

Taking a look at commodities oil has pivoted lower this afternoon to trade to trade at US$78.73/barrel on rate hike worries, while gold is down 0.32% at US$1858/ounce and iron ore is trading up 0.4% at US$126/tonne.

The Aussie dollar is buying US$0.69, 91.33 Japanese Yen, 57.32 British Pence and NZ$1.10.