Indices: Australian ASX 200
The ASX 200 climbed back toward the 9,000 mark on Wednesday, with strength across the banks and miners lifting the market to a second straight day of gains, with gold notching yet another record high.
The ASX rallied to finish near the 9000 level and within reach of all-time highs – the majority of gains driven by the major banks and miners as upbeat sentiment from a strong start to the U.S. earnings season spilled over into the local market.
The ASX200 experienced a choppy Tuesday before ultimately closing up +0.2% courtesy of another stellar session by the resources, with the materials sector +2.3% and energy sector +1.4% dragging a begrudging market higher.
The ASX 200 opened lower as expected on Monday, but failed to capitalise on a steady advance in U.S. futures, with nearly half of the session’s losses occurring in the afternoon even as the S&P pushed higher.
The ASX200 is set to open sharply lower this morning with the high-flying miners likely to bear the brunt of the selling as fears that another period of tariff uncertainty will lead to a global slowdown.
The ASX 200 rose +0.3% on Thursday, though the real action played out beneath the market’s surface, with the materials sector leading the charge, up +1.8% despite a rare pullback in gold stocks.
The ASX200 slipped 0.1% on a quiet Wednesday, which saw some initial morning weakness before buyers returned, taking the index back towards unchanged. Outside of Wesfarmers (WES) -7.5 points and James Hardie (JHX) +5.7 points, none of the main board added or retracted 2 points from the index.
The ASX200 peeled away 0.3% on Tuesday, the first “real” day of trading this week, although losses weren’t overly broad-based, with 40% of the main board closing higher.
The ASX200 slipped 0.1% during an extremely quiet Labour Days trade. However the theme remained the same with defence, rare earth, copper and gold stocks leading the line while the tech sector struggled, slipping 1.4%. Not a great deal could be read into the session, with most trading desks running skeleton staff at best ahead of the short week, right in the middle of school holidays.
The ASX 200 surged +1.1% on the second day of October, enjoying its best session in six weeks, as the market appeared to enjoy fresh funds flowing into the major stocks and sectors.
