The Australian share market experienced a relatively flat day, closing up by just 0.1% or 6.10 points at 7,121.60 points on Tuesday.

Despite the modest increase, the information technology sector played a crucial role in boosting the market. Analyst Tony Sycamore referred to this as a “win of sorts” after August had seen a 4% decline across the market.

The standout performers were Altium Limited and Megaport Limited, both from the IT sector.

Altium and megaport lead ASX gains, retail sector dips

Altium’s stock price surged by an impressive 25.30% to $46.21 per share after reporting a 20.3% increase in EBITDA to $US96 million and a 19.6% rise in post-tax profit to $US66.3 million.

Altium raised its dividend by 14.9% to $0.54 per share. Cloud network company Megaport’s stock price jumped 16.94% to $12.15 after announcing a 40% revenue growth to $153.1 million and strong forward guidance with projected EBITDA growth of 152% to 182% for the fiscal year.

However, not all sectors experienced positive outcomes. The retail sector, particularly consumer discretionary, saw a decline of 0.88%.

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Retail companies like Kogan and Coles faced challenges, with Kogan’s gross sales and revenue dropping by around 30% and Coles’ share price falling by 7.08% despite a rise in annual profit.

Among the miners, BHP reported a 37% fall in underlying profit due to lower commodity prices, while Rio Tinto and Fortescue saw modest gains.

Energy companies faced losses, with Woodside falling by 1.04% despite reporting higher profits and record production, and Santos and Origin also experiencing declines.

On a positive note, the major banks saw increases in their share prices, with NAB leading the way at 1.31%, followed by Westpac, ANZ, and CommBank.