Indices: Australian ASX 200

The ASX200 maintained its recent love affair with the 7500 area on Thursday finally closing up +0.35% with the influential financials offering the main support e.g. Suncorp (SUN) +4.6%, Macquarie Group (MQG) +2.6% and National Australia Bank (NAB) +1%. The winners and losers were evenly matched but it was the smaller end of the main index which dragged the chain hence the index managed to post a small gain e.g. Elders (ELD) -5.9%, Healius (HLS) -5.4% and United Malt Group (UMG) -4.1%.

The painful 9th straight rate hike was built into the market but comments like the above have significantly increased the prospect of rates breaching 4% in 2023 e.g. 3-year bond yields rallied +0.15% yesterday. Amazingly just last April the official cash rate was at 0.1% making it easy to comprehend why many households are starting to hurt and become frustrated by the RBA .

The ASX200 ended Monday down -0.25% following Friday’s weak session on Wall Street coupled with follow-through selling in the pre-market S&P500 futures. The weakness was broad-based with less than 30% of the main index closing in positive territory with the winner’s circle being dominated by the energy and gold names – more on the precious metal later following Newmont’s (NEM US) bid for Newcrest (NCM).