Bravura Surges +12.5%, while Financials & Consumer Sell-off on Hawkish RBA
Paper Mandate Market & Portfolio Commentary | 12 August 2026
Fund Status:
Bal Start: $1,184,649
Bought None
Sold: None
Bal End: $1,193,983
Cash: $107,175
% Move: 0.79%
Recap since last update
It’s been a busy time since the last Paper Mandate article. As a quick roundup of the last two weeks:
There was some higher volatility for the ASX over the last fortnight as corporate earnings season kicked off. The RBA held the cash rate steady at 4.35%. The decision was supported by July’s softer CPI print (3.8%), providing relief to growth and interest rate sensitive stocks.
Meanwhile global bond yields have remained elevated, driven by a hawkish Federal Reserve and sticky inflation.
Oil prices have been volatile due to the US Iran conflict and restrictive supply through the Strait of Hormuz.
Gold found a floor at $4,000 and has recently rallied back to $4,300 as investors hedge against inflation and equities. .
Early earnings reports saw swings across small and mid-caps, with markets heavily scrutinizing margin expansion, cost inflation, and capital management guidance into FY27.
Life360 Earnings Result
As a recent example of an interesting earnings result, let’s look briefly at Life360. They delivered a strong beat across many metrics:
Revenue: US$159m (+38% YoY), beating consensus of US$156.5m.
Core subscription revenue grew +31% to $115.6m
Advertising revenue +315% to $22.0m post the Nativo integration.
Adjusted EBITDA: US$31.1m (+53% YoY), beating consensus by 22% (US$25.5m).
Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 19.6% vs. 16.3% expected.
Operating Cash Flow: US$23.8 million (+79% YoY), with total cash now at $467.7 million.
Monthly Active Users (MAUs) crossed the 100 million milestone, reaching 102.4 million (+16% YoY) with 4.6 million net additions in Q2. Global Paying Circles grew 27% YoY to 3.2m (185k net additions in Q2).
Despite this, the stock fell -24.76% for the US listing and -19.44% for the Aussie Listing. The disconnect came from hardware shipments falling 18% YoY to 0.7m units. This was due to the exit from brick and mortar retail channels. This triggered a “sell-the-news” reaction despite the fundamental earnings beat.
Overnight Markets
The S&P 500 finished lower -0.32%, led down by tech heavyweights Alphabet (-3.6%) and Amazon (-2.0%). The Nasdaq also fell -0.60%. There appears to be caution in the market ahead of the US CPI, while the US Iran conflict continues pushing Brent up 1.6% to $89.30/bbl. Sector wise Energy (+1.06%) and Utilities (+1.11%) rose while Communication Services (-2.12%) and Real Estate (-0.86%) underperformed. In Australia, reporting season has started in earnest, with CBA reporting a +1% beat on FY26 NPAT. Results from Suncorp, Computershare, and Bravura are also coming through.
Australian Market
The ASX200 fell -0.45% logging a third decline in four sessions after the RBA’s hawkish rate hold continues to weigh on rate sensitive names. Real Estate (-1.0%) and Consumer Discretionary (-0.81%) were the worst performers. A stock of note was Premier Investments (-11.0%) which downgraded and announced an exit from the UK market. Lovisa (-4.5%) was also down. On the upside, Utilities (+2.64%) and Lithium stocks rallied led by Core Lithium (+5.9%) and Liontown (+5.5%). Top performer was Bravura (+12.5%) which jumped on a fantastic earnings result.
Portfolio Commentary
The portfolio gained +0.79%, comfortably beating the ASX300 (-0.45%). Top contributors today were: BVS up +12.54% following a strong FY26 result, our gold favourite PC2 up +9.47%, and MP1 which jumped +3.71%. On the downside, and following the RBA hawkish sell-off, LOV dropped -4.47%, Judo Bank was down -2.62%, while Xero (-1.89%), and Life360 (-1.05%) were only down a little.
Investment Activity
None
Disclaimer: This is a paper portfolio. Content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research.