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A choppy but positive start to the week for the Australian market with strength in the material, energy & property sectors partially offset by weakness amongst financials & healthcare. The best of the session was seen before lunchtime with the market up +60pts at its peak, before a late sell-off created a fairly disappointing / lacklustre finish to trade.
Omicron undoubtedly hasn’t gone away but equities have moved their focus elsewhere, at least for now. The headlines for the variant have remained mixed however international and state governments are forging ahead with their reopening plans with renewed vigour e.g. Queensland’s borders finally opened to NSW and Victoria this morning while Dan Andrews is actually opening the Garden State to visitors from South Africa without the need for quarantine!
The ASX200 rallied over 1.5% last week with all 11 sectors closing in positive territory although it was surprisingly the defensives which led the line i.e. Consumer Staples, Utilities and Real Estate names. It was unusual to see the likes of tech, materials and financials dragging the chain when the market enjoyed such solid gains. At this stage there’s nothing more sinister than some sector reversion / catch up at play towards year end but we are watching out for investors de-risking into 2022.
A softer day to end the week, though selling was pretty subdued from an index point of view. A weak lead from US markets weighed on stocks, particularly the tech sector which was in the firing line both here and overseas. Healthcare & energy were also notably weak while the utilities sector was carried by strength in two of the heavyweights of the sector. There was little in the way of news flow to drive markets, weakness largely blamed…
The ASX200 took a breather on Thursday after an explosive few days, the market ultimately closed down 0.3% after some late selling in the SPI futures dragged the index into the red but overall it felt like a nothing day with only 54% of stocks closing down. We saw some mixed news towards the Omicron variant but it really felt like investors simply just took a rest after advancing all week:
A fairly quiet session for the local market today with stocks consolidating yesterdays strong advance. There was very little in terms of company news flow nor was there any tier 1 economic data aside from Chinese inflation which came in a tad below expectations. Utilities led the line up +0.40% while Energy stocks finished 1.09% lower. Overall, a fairly lacklustre session and a fairly lacklustre afternoon note as a consequence!
The ASX200 roared higher on Wednesday, “hump day” to many but traders often refer to it as “drive day” as the market finally decides where it’s headed, this time the market enjoyed broad based buying with over 80% of stocks closing in positive territory, the index scaled fresh 3-week highs as Omicron fears seemed to vanish almost as fast as they arrived. The 1.25% gain took the local market within 3% of its all-time high only a few weeks after the doom and gloom merchants were focusing on either bond yields or Omicron. I feel…
A bullish session for the Australian market today enjoying another positive night overseas, although we took a while to get going initially. The SPI Futures only pointing up +22pts this morning which seemed underdone and that proved on the money as the local index kicked into gear from lunchtime onwards before a late 35pt sell-off took some of the shine off what still proved to be a very good day out – all sectors finishing in the green.
We are selling Lynas (LYC) & Pilbara (PLS) and buying Aussie Broadband (ABB), Nitro (NTO) & Bapcor (BAP) in the Emerging Companies Portfolio.
Tuesday saw the ASX200 rally strongly finally closing up just shy of 1% on broad based buying with strong gains enjoyed by most pockets of the market, however the standout performances largely came from stocks who were whacked in previous sessions around Omicron fears, as we’ve said over recent days the new variant emanating from South Africa doesn’t appear to be an economic or health game changer, the RBA concurs with our feeling here believing the Omicron variant is a source of uncertainty but no major risk to our economy. Overall the Australian central…
