Australian Investment Blog

Yesterday, ANZ Bank stunned investors by announcing a $3bn capital raising (through share placement and share purchase plan), basically to keep APRA happy – it’s obvious which “tail is wagging the dog”. Although ANZ made noises to the effect of no capital raising over recent weeks, on the surface it looks smart to have acted before rivals, Commonwealth Bank (CBA) and Westpac Bank (WBC). The result yesterday was aggressive selling in the ‘slower’ two banks, as the market discounted them in anticipation of future capital raisings. The noises in today’s press are not particularly positive “too small, too expensive and unfair to mums & dads”, but nobody is saying bad market timing. At MarketMatters, we have been predicting this correction in our local banking sector and see it as an excellent opportunity for long term investors.