Core ETF Portfolio

29/07/2026 09:36

First Up

The ASX 200 delivered a stellar albeit surprising performance on Tuesday, reversing early losses to close up +0.6%, posting a 6-week high in the process. The buying gathered momentum after lunch ahead of todays pivotal CPI inflation read, with bonds also strong; it felt like some hawks were squaring their positions in case the CPI comes in softer than expected.  However, what was most impressive about the performance was the manner in which the local market shrugged off weakness across the region, where the KOSPI (-11%) and Japanese Nikkei (-4%) combined with weak US futures to paint a clouded picture for risk assets.

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29/07/2026 09:28

Property stocks look interesting

Property stocks have caught our attention. On Friday, bond yields traded materially higher on a spike up in Oil prices prompting Aussie 3-year yields to increase by ~10bps. We flagged this at the time. In this scenario, the expectations would be for interest rate sensitive sectors like property to get sold off aggressively, yet that didn’t happen, implying the selling towards the sector has been exhausted. This week, those macro headwinds have eased and property stocks (and retailers for that matter) have rallied from near 52 week lows. We think both of these sectors offer very interesting value/yield opportunities at current levels. Today, we’ll focus on property.

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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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