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The ASX200 was trading down almost 1% at midday on Monday before buyers returned, trimming over half of the morning’s losses. The song remains the same, with buyers of weakness emerging, and again, banks led the way, e.g. Commonwealth Bank (CBA) +1%, and Westpac (WBC) +0.6%. Considering the geopolitical backdrop, Monday’s 0.4% pullback was a stoic performance, which, in our opinion, illustrates that many investors, across the whole spectrum, have been caught underweight in stocks following the market’s aggressive post “Liberation Day” V-shaped recovery.
We were the first major market to absorb the weekend’s strikes on Iran, and while stocks fell, it was far from aggressive, with the ASX trading down ~80pts at the lows before the dip buyers emerged, pushing the index up ~50pts from the morning nadir.
Trump said he would take up to two weeks to decide on the US’s involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict, but it ended up being closer to two days after American bombers struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites.
The ASX200 finished last week down 0.5% in a lacklustre period on the index level that was characterised by tight ranges with an overall net downside bias as the proverbial “Can” was kicked down the road in the Israel-Iran conflict. The ongoing uncertainty in the Middle East helped the energy sector advance by +5.3%, while the materials sector was the standout loser, driven by gold and iron ore names. Elsewhere, it felt like we were starting to see early signs of jockeying for the tax man and book ruling off into the EOFY.
It was a mixed day on the ASX today with half the main board higher/lower with the banks and materials sectors doing some damage early but the buy the dip mentality well and truly in play as we saw a significant grind higher through the session amounting to a +43pt move from the low of the day to the close.
The ASX 200 slipped another 0.1% on Thursday, with the song remaining the same on the stock & sector level. CBA scaled new highs, trading through $183, while weakness in the large-cap iron ore miners was enough to ensure the index closed mildly lower.
Another resilient session for the ASX, at the index level at least, with large cap, index heavy names continuing to find flows, though there was plenty of weakness across certain sectors, resources being an area that remained under pressure.
Wednesday saw the ASX200 close down 0.1% after rotating in another tight 0.4% range as the market remains in its “Middle East Conflict” holding pattern. The losers slightly beat the winners, with only two stocks moving by over 5%, illustrating the lacklustre nature of the day. At the sector level, weakness in the resources sector more than offset gains in tech, which we will examine later today
The ASX bounced between positive and negative territory today amid a sharp sell-off in materials after iron ore hit a 9-month low but ultimately closed toward its lows of the days narrow ~30pt trading range.
We are making several changes across Market Matters Portfolios today
