The ASX200 ended the week down -0.7%, leaving the index up just +2.6% in FY26 to date. The main drag was again the miners, despite a bounce on Friday, with heavyweights RIO (-2%), BHP Group (-2%), and Mineral Resources (-12%), offsetting a recovery in the rate-sensitive retail, healthcare, and real estate sectors. For the first 6 months of 2026, the index is up less than 1%, despite strong moves in both directions.
Last week’s winners and losers were drawn from different sides of the fence, with healthcare stocks enjoying a strong few days while the lithium stocks surrendered some of their recent strong gains.
Winners: Pro Medicus (ASX: PME) +9.3%, Ramsay Health Care (ASX: RHC) +9%, James Hardie (ASX: JHX) +9%, ResMed (ASX: RMD) +8%, SGH Ltd (ASX: SGH) +7%, a2 Milk (A2M) +7%, Aristocrat (ASX: ALL) +7%, NRW Holdings (ASX: NWH) +6%, and QANTAS (ASX: QAN) +6%.
Losers: Judo Capital (ASX: JDO) -41%, Predictive Discovery (ASX: PDI) -24%, Elevra Lithium (ASX: ELV) -19%, DroneShield (ASX: DRO) -17%, IperionX (ASX: IPX) -16%, Liontown (ASX: LTR) -16%, WiseTech (ASX: WTC) -14%, and PLS Group (ASX: PLS) -14%.
Weekly snapshot: The standout last week, in what was fairly quiet locally, was the aggressive and volatile selling in the “AI Trade”, with the Korean KOSPI plunging 10% in one session; not a sector that has a major impact on the ASX:
- The first few days of the week saw oil prices accelerate to the downside as the US-Iran negotiations remained on track, while WiseTech crashed on rumours that the police were investigating founder Richard White.
- On Wednesday, a mixed CPI eased fears around interest rates, fueling further rotation from miners into rate-sensitive names.
- On Thursday, we saw Judo Bank (JDO) plunge 40% as trading conditions appear to deteriorate in Australia for small and medium-sized businesses.
Next week is likely to be dominated by EOFY shenanigans, whereas in the US, employment data comes out on Wednesday ahead of Independence Day on Thursday.
Overseas markets ended the week on the back foot in a choppy but net negative session. In Europe, the German DAX fell by -1.3% while the UK FTSE fared better, only slipping by -0.2%. In the US, the AI rout continued with the tech-based NASDAQ falling -1.1% while the broad-based S&P 500 closed basically flat.
- The SPI Futures are calling the ASX200 to open up +0.2% on Monday, following the soft session on overseas bourses.
