Afternoon Report | GYG comes home
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Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report for Friday the 22nd of May 2026. I'm Sean Aylmer. Every afternoon we've got the five stories that happened today that you need to know about. Story number one, the S&P ASX 200 closed up nearly half a percent today to 8,657 points. Looked like being a bit of a better day, but the market sagged towards the end before surging in the last couple of minutes. Best on the day were the materials and energy sectors after a couple of lacklustre sessions yesterday and Wednesday. Worst today were telcos and utilities. Among the large caps, BHP, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and Rio all rose 1%, while Goodman Group, Fortescue Metals and Telstra all fell more than 1%.
One of the best on the day was fast food retailer Guzmani Gomez, who said it was dumping plans to expand into the US. It finished up 9% for the week. The bourse was up slightly. Story number two, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is open to reversing last week's budget announcement that discretionary trusts be taxed at a minimum rate of 30%. which the coalition has called a death tax.
What were the key market movements in the ASX today?
Now, according to reports in the Sydney Morning Herald today, Labor is open to amending or reversing its decision on trust, but will push ahead with its call to replace the 50% capital gains tax discount with cost-based indexation. Meanwhile, the Fin Review is reporting that preliminary negotiations between the federal government and the Greens over the budget have begun. The Greens hold the balance of power in the Senate and are pushing for tougher property tax changes. Now, the Greens, who initiated the push to pare back the CGT discount by setting up a Senate inquiry late last year, have as their starting point that there be no capital gains tax discount and no exemptions or grandfathering of existing assets.
A little bit to go there. Story number three, telco group Tuas, whose share price is down 60% this week, said its $1.5 billion agreement to acquire M1 in Singapore has been terminated. The deal, first announced in August last year, was between Tuas subsidiary Simba Telecom and a couple of telcos in Singapore. The fall in Tuas's share price follows Singapore's Infocom Media Development Authority, that's a regulator, launching an investigation into the David Teo-backed group, alleging that Simba may have breached the law by using unapproved radio waves. Story number four, the Trump administration is committing $2 billion in assistance to nine high-tech companies, including PsyQuantum, a group the Australian government is backing with nearly $1 billion in taxpayer support to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer.
The group hopes to build a world-first quantum computer near Brisbane and has signed a letter of intent with the US Department of Commerce for $100 million in proposed federal incentives. And story number five, detectives investigating Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office have repeated their call for people to come forward with information. It's understood police are concerned that witnesses might think they are focusing only on the allegation that Mountbatten-Windsor shared a confidential trade report with late financier Jeffrey Epstein, according to the BBC. But the investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor who has consistently denied wrongdoing in relation to his association with Epstein, has actually broadened to include claims of sexual misconduct and corruption, according to media reports.
That's it for the afternoon report for Friday, the 22nd of May, 2026. Make sure you're following the podcast and head along to fearandgreed.com.au to sign up for our free daily newsletter. I'm Sean Aylmer. Enjoy your evening.
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