1. Majority of active funds outperformed the ASX 200 in FY21

55.7% of actively managed Australian equity funds outperformed the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 in the year to June 30, 2021 according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The average fund return was 30.1% on an asset-weight basis compared to 27.8% for the index. This in contrast to the longer term trends, where 24.3% of funds have outperformed the ASX 200 over five years and 19.2% of funds over ten years.

2. No new female CEOS appointed to ASX 200 companies last year

There were have been no women appointed as CEOs of ASX 200 companies in the past year and only one out of ASX 300 companies, oOh!media's Cathy O’Connor, according to a survey conducted by Chief Executive Women and published in today's AFR. 5% of the CEOs of ASX 200 companies were women as of June 30, the same level as last year.

3. More than 300,000 participate in Qantas vaccination promotion

Qantas has announced that over 300,000 vaccinated Australians have claimed more than 220 million frequent flyer points as part of the airline's promotion to encourage vaccination. Flight searches rose by 175% after the company announced its plans to resume international flights by December, with flights from Sydney and Melbourne to London the most popular according to The Australian.

4. Researcher rediscovers speaking duck

Recordings of an Australian musk duck from 35 years ago have been used to demonstrate the ability of the birds to mimic human speech. Ripper the duck repeatedly says "you bloody fool" in the recordings made by Australian researcher Peter Fullagar at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve near Canberra. They were rediscovered by Carel ten Cate from Leiden University in the Netherlands as part of his research on vocal learning in birds.

5. Dow Jones falls 0.8% overnight

At the start of the shortened trading week in the US, the Dow Jones fell 269.09 points or 0.76% to 35,100.00 and the S&P 500 closed down 15.40 points or 0.34% to 4,520.03, while the Nasdaq rose 10.81 points or 0.07% to a new record-high close of 15,374.33.