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The local market staged a broad recovery today as technology and materials stocks bounced back from heavy losses, supported by easing concerns around the global AI thematic, triggering renewed buying across oversold sectors though weakness in banks and consumer staples limited the advance. The rally followed a volatile Wall Street session, where gains broadened beyond AI chipmakers, while easing concerns over AI-related debt helped stabilise sentiment. Gold stocks recovered particularly well today as the ASX 200 reclaimed its 200-day moving average for the first time since early September.
- ASX 200: 8,806.70, +86.98pts, +1.00%.
- AUD/USD: 0.6945, +0.35%.
- Best Sectors: Information Technology +5.62%, Materials +3.18%, Healthcare +2.49%.
- Worst Sectors: Energy -0.26%, Financials -0.52%, Consumer Staples -0.53%.
- IT led the rebound after US technology stocks recovered from early losses overnight. Nvidia chief Jensen Huang’s comments that cloud provider CoreWeave was improving helped ease concerns about AI credit risks – SiteMinder (ASX: SDR) +10.12% to $2.72, WiseTech Global (ASX: WTC) +9.01% to $37.61, Life360 (ASX: 360) +7.66% to $20.38, Xero (ASX: XRO) +7.05% to $61.79 and Pro Medicus (ASX: PME) +7.43% to $175.73 led the recovery. WTC, PME & XRO held in the Active Growth Portfolio, SDR & 360 held in the Emerging Companies Portfolio.
- Materials rose as investors returned to beaten-up miners and gold stocks following the previous session’s sell-off – BHP Group (ASX: BHP) +3.50% to $60.03, Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) +1.46% to $154.93 and Fortescue (ASX: FMG) +1.13% to $15.19 recovered, while Newmont (ASX: NEM) +3.99% to $166.17 advanced along with the gold miners. BHP held in the Active Growth and Income Portfolios. FMG held in the Active Income Portfolio.
- PLS Group (ASX: PLS) +0.34% to $2.98 approved its $1.9 billion Pilgangoora expansion, targeting production of approximately 2 million tonnes of spodumene concentrate annually from the September quarter of 2029.
- Maas Group Holdings (ASX: MGH) +14.8% to $3.80 rebounded after reiterating its position following the $1.61 billion sale of its construction materials business to Heidelberg Materials. The company confirmed a new share buyback of up to 20% of its shares, approximately $1.7 billion in available liquidity, including $600 million in cash, and around $1.1 billion of electrical work in hand to be delivered over the next 18 months.
- Mesoblast (ASX: MSB) +2.58% to $1.99 was weaker through the session but finished higher after releasing quarterly sales numbers for its Ryoncil drug.
- Cleanaway Waste Management (ASX: CWY) -6.08% to $2.47 fell sharply ahead of an expected decision involving private equity firm EQT, with investors focused on the potential implications for the company’s takeover prospects. The stock was the weakest performer in the supplied winners-and-losers screen.
- Gold: Traded near US$4,180/oz / +0.2%,
- Iron Ore: $US91.10/mt / +1.4%
- Brent crude: Traded near US$105.40/bbl / -0.5%
- Futures: S&P 500 E-mini futures +13.75pts / +0.18% | Dow Jones futures +67.00pts / +0.13% | FTSE futures -2.00pts / -0.02%.
