Sydney, March 4, 2026, 17:33 AEDT — Market closed
Coles Group Ltd COL.AX shares ended down 0.5% at A$21.25 on Wednesday, holding up better than the broader sell-off in Sydney. The stock traded between A$21.18 and A$21.71 and about 5.7 million shares changed hands, the company’s investor page showed.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.94% to 8,901.20, keeping the mood defensive into the next session. Coles’ smaller drop stood out against that tape.
A firmer annual growth read at home and fresh oil-price volatility abroad are back in the same sentence, and that tends to drag rate expectations with it. Money markets kept bets of a March move at about 30% and fully priced in a hike for May, after the Middle East conflict disrupted oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz and pushed prices up more than 10%, according to a Reuters report.
Australia’s economy grew 0.8% in the December quarter and 2.6% from a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. “There was broad based economic growth in the quarter,” ABS head of National Accounts Grace Kim said. Australian Bureau of Statistics
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michele Bullock said this week the Middle East conflict was a reminder “things can change quickly” for the inflation outlook, and pointed to the cash rate at 3.85% as leaving policy well placed to respond. A supply shock could add to inflation, while a prolonged hit to energy markets could also hurt growth, she said. Reuters
Peer Woolworths Group finished down 0.96% at A$35.94, its investor site showed. Both supermarket names fell less than the index, a pattern that often shows up when traders are cutting risk.
For Coles, the week-ahead company marker is the interim dividend: 41.0 Australian cents a share, fully franked, with shares due to go ex-dividend on March 10. Ex-dividend means new buyers from that date will not receive the upcoming payout.
But the cushion is not guaranteed. If energy-driven inflation sticks and rates push higher, household budgets can tighten again and input costs can drift up at the same time, even for “defensive” retailers.
Next week’s lead items are overseas energy headlines and any further shift in Australian rate pricing ahead of the central bank’s March 16–17 meeting. That call, more than day-to-day volatility, is likely to set the tone for consumer names into mid-March.
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