27/07/2026 09:47

ASX200 Index

At the index level, it appears the ASX 200 is comfortable trading around the 8800 level, but the volatility under the hood has been high. It’s just that funds have been rotating in an out of stocks/sectors rather that in and out of the market.  At this stage it appears the bulls require a “believable” resolution to the US-Iran conflict, &/or a cracking reporting season next month - at least expectations feel muted/cautious. However, when we look at the broad markets valuation its ok except on one front:

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22/07/2026 09:24

First Up

The ASX 200 again managed to reverse early losses on Tuesday to edge higher, with the local index continuing to display resilience into dips. The materials and tech sectors returned to the winners' enclosure, with the former adding 29-points on a day when the index closed up only 2-points. The banks were again the main drag on the market with the “Big Four” retreating almost 1%, offsetting much of the good work of BHP (+1.3%), South32 (+6.6%), and the gold stocks, many of whom closed more than +4% higher. Conversely, the lithium names which we discussed yesterday continued to decline: Liontown (-5.1%), Mineral Resources (-3.5%), and PLS Group (-1.7%).

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20/07/2026 09:27

ASX200 Index

The ASX remained anchored around the 8800 level last week despite a difficult week for miners and escalating US-Iran tensions that pushed oil back towards US$90/barrel. The game remains the same, money isn’t moving in or out of the local market, its just rotating between different stocks and sectors. We can still see the ASX200 trading back above 9000 in the coming months but it’s going to need a catalyst to move out of its comfort zone.

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17/07/2026 09:13

First Up

The ASX200 again fought back from early losses on Thursday to finish down less than 0.1%, with the performance mantle being passed to the banks and retailers while the miners, and in particular BHP Group (ASX: BHP), weighed on the index - not great timing after we sung the praises of the “Big Australian” on Thursday morning! The materials sector took almost 36-points off the ASX200 after BHP and Evolution delivered a 1-2 of disappointing trading updates:

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15/07/2026 09:49

First Up

The ASX 200 has now rallied from early losses to close near its highs for five consecutive sessions, after recovering an early 50-point deficit on Tuesday to end the session flat. The miners bounced strongly to close higher despite crude oil trading ~5% higher, with Evolution Mining (+3.2%), South32 (+2%), Regis Resources (+2%), Sandfire (+1.5%), and BHP Group (+0.6%) catching our eye as a slow but steady bid tone surfaced across the gold and copper names. These miners were helped by a recovery in gold (+0.5%) and copper (+1.5%) during our trading session as the $US edged lower ahead of the important US CPI inflation data.

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14/07/2026 09:57

First Up

The ASX 200 has now rallied from early losses to close near its highs for four straight sessions, a classic hallmark of a market with strong underlying buying support. The banks helped the market close higher on Monday, despite 60% of the main board closing lower, but overall it was a fairly lacklustre session considering the fresh US-Iran fighting, which sent US stock and bond futures lower as oil pushed back towards US$80/barrel. Again, we ignored sharp losses across the semiconductor space in Asia, but that’s no major surprise, given the dearth of major AI stocks on the ASX. Unfortunately, news out of the Middle East continued to deteriorate overnight:

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13/07/2026 09:40

ASX200 Index

The ASX showed resilience towards the end of last week, closing on its highs in the last 3 sessions but  it was still unable to deliver any kind of trend with the 8800-level acting like strong magnet for the index - it’s been well over 6-months since the ASX200 moved in either direction for four consecutive weeks. We can still see the ASX200 trading back above 9000 this month but it’s going to need a catalyst to move out of its comfort zone.

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10/07/2026 09:37

First Up

The ASX200 again fought back from early steep losses on Thursday to end down just 0.3%, reclaiming ~74% of its early deficit, but it still closed lower for the fourth consecutive day. The mining stocks again dragged on the index, with BHP Group (ASX: BHO) and RIO Tinto (ASX: RIO) making up almost 80% of the decline on their own, while this time it was more broad-based buying that supported the index rather than the banks that joined the miners on the wrong side of the ledger.

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09/07/2026 09:17

First Up

The ASX 200 continues to ride the volatile rollercoaster it's been aboard for well over 400-days. Last week the local market looked destined for new all-time highs following triple-digit gains on Friday, close on the heels of a strong performance on the Thursday. This morning we're sitting at our desks contemplating what's next after President Trump declared the ceasefire with “scum” Iran is over; we knew he wasn’t happy following the USA’s debacle of an exit from the World Cup, but we didn’t think global tensions would escalate in just a matter of hours. The news is already sounding so familiar to much of the last quarter:

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20/04/2026 08:39

ASX200 Index

The Australian share market failed to follow the almost 5% gain by US stocks last week, primarily because the banks were soft, led by Westpac (ASX:WBC) which fell more than 7%, dragging the influential sector down 2.1%. It was one of those weeks where the bad news arrived in waves and the market had nowhere to hide even as global indices rallied around it. The ASX decline was modest until compared to its global peers.

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