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The local market found some support today, snapping a three-day losing streak as banks and miners led a modest rebound. The move was helped by some relief in bond markets, with the Australian 10-year yield easing from multi-year highs to around 5.16%.
The improvement followed a steadier lead from Wall Street, where the major indices snapped their own three-day losing streak as US yields pulled back and oil stabilised. Middle East tensions remain the obvious wildcard, but comments from Whitehouse officials suggesting the latest US-Iran escalation may be relatively short-lived helped unwind some of yesterday’s risk-off trade.
Financials and Materials did most of the heavy lifting on the index level, while Energy was the clear laggard as oil stocks gave back some of their recent gains.
- ASX 200: +41.68pts (+0.46%) to 9,020.10
- AUD/USD: 0.7161, flat
- Best sectors: Financials +0.86%, Healthcare +0.80%, REITs +0.76%
- Worst sectors: Energy -1.24%, IT -0.78%, Utilities -0.17%
- Financials were the strongest part of the market, with the major banks rebounding after recent weakness. NAB (ASX: NAB) +1.79% to $39.27, Westpac (ASX: WBC) +1.51% to $34.91 and ANZ (ASX: ANZ) +1.33% to $38.01 were all around 1%-plus higher through the session, while CBA (ASX: CBA) +0.79% to $160.58 also edged up. Banks have now bounced around 3% from their late-August lows, although they remain well below early August levels pre-results. ANZ held in the Active Growth and Income Portfolios.
- Materials also bounced after being hammered yesterday, with strength returning across gold, copper, lithium and iron ore. Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) +1.28% to $177.11 and Fortescue (ASX: FMG) +2.05% to $16.95 were among the stronger large caps, while BHP Group (ASX: BHP) +0.81% to $63.78 lagged. BHP held in the Active Growth and Income Portfolios. FMG held in the Active Income Portfolio.
- Gold stocks were particularly strong after three rough sessions, with the All Ordinaries Gold Index rebounding around 2.6% after falling 6.6% over the previous three days. Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN) +2.60% to $15.01, Northern Star (ASX: NST) +2.61% to $23.17, Capricorn Metals (ASX: CMM) +2.83% to $16.34, Genesis Minerals (ASX: GMD) +3.34% to $8.36 and Ramelius Resources (ASX: RMS) +3.70% to $3.92 were among the leaders. Evolution Mining held in the Active Growth Portfolio.
- Ive Group (ASX: IGL) +0.74 % to $2.74 rose modestly after FY26 results showed earnings broadly in line with guidance and the dividend slightly better than expected.
- Lithium also caught a bid, with IGO (ASX: IGO) +1.08% to $8.41 among the better performers. Goldman upgraded IGO to Buy with a $9.50 target, adding some stock-specific support alongside the broader resources rebound.
- Energy went the other way as the sector unwound some of its recent geopolitical rally. Woodside (ASX: WDS) -2.60% to $32.22 was lower during the session despite Brent remaining near US$95/bbl.
- Corporate Travel Management (ASX: CTD) -85.55 % to $2.32 was the day’s biggest story, plunging after returning from a year-long trading suspension. The stock opened 81% lower at $3.00 and slowly fell further, wiping almost $2bn from its pre-suspension market value. While FY26 underlying EBITDA improved 36% and the business returned to profit, the combination of governance issues, a dramatically weaker earnings base and a year of pent-up selling proved brutal.
- Regis Healthcare (ASX: REG) -26.99 % to $1.59 was another major casualty, falling as much as 30% after warning the government’s 2.55% increase in the aged-care starting price was nowhere near enough to compensate for rising costs.
- Telstra (ASX: TLS) +0.85% to $4.76 received some broker support, with Citi upgrading the telco to Buy and lifting its price target to $5.25, adding to sentiment after Barrenjoey’s upgrade yesterday. In a market wrestling uncertainty, Telstra’s defensive earnings profile is starting to attract interest.
- Paladin Energy (ASX: PDN) +1.35% to $11.26 was upgraded to Outperform by Macquarie, with its target lifted 7% to $13.85 with development project Patterson Lake South spruiked as the key valuation driver.
- Vulcan Energy (ASX: VUL) +1.16% to $2.61 released a positive PFS for the second phase of its German lithium development. Project Ludwig delivered a €1.7bn post-tax NPV and 20.2% IRR, with capital intensity around 15% below Lionheart, showing VUL can replicate the development model rather than Lionheart being a one-off project.
- Fenix Resources (ASX: FEX) ended the day flat at 26.5c, trading ex a 1c dividend after delivering a maiden 26.9Mt Ore Reserve at its Beebyn Hub, underpinning more than five years of mine life at current production rates.
- Real Estate remained relatively subdued, with the higher-rate environment still an obvious headwind. Barrenjoey cut GPT Group (ASX: GPT) -1.93% to $4.57 and Lifestyle Communities (ASX: LIC) to Underweight, alongside a downgrade of Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX: CLW) -1.70% to $3.47.
- Gold: around $US4422/oz / +0.9%
- Iron ore: Looked strong $99.10/mt / 1.8%
- Crude oil: $US94.50/bbl / -1.2%
- S&P 500 E-mini futures: +1.75pts / +0.02%
- Dow E-mini futures: +82.00pts / +0.15%
- FTSE futures: +10.00pts / +0.09%
