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The RBA demonstrated some admirable independence yesterday as it hiked interest rates by a moderate 0.25% ignoring hawkish rhetoric from other major central banks in the process, a great call in our opinion! With a large proportion of Australian mortgages going to be linked to the Official Cash Rate by the end of next year there’s undoubtedly going to be a significant headwind for the Australian consumer in the not too distant future, we believe this lag effect is likely to have played a significant role in the decision from Philip Lowe et al.
The ASX200 advanced another 1% last week, closing above the psychological 8600 level for the first time. The healthcare, real estate, and materials sectors all closed up around 3%, while the financial sector was the weakest over the five days, closing down 0.7%. For the market to extend the recent gains, it will need to shrug off high valuations and lack of earnings growth, although, as we saw last week, the resources stocks can do some of the heavy lifting after experiencing a tough 18 months.
A quiet end to a solid week for stocks, chalking up a positive move to kick off FY26. The FY25 trend of buying certainty at any price has taken a (slight) knock, with sectors and stocks representing better value attracting more flows this week.
The ASX 200 finished unchanged on Thursday, but on the stock level, it was a very different story, with the materials sector surging over 3% while 8 of the mainboard 11 sectors retreated, including the financials, which fell 1.3%, a very different story to the last 18 months.
The sector/stock divergence that we’ve been highlighting recently stepped up a notch today as BHP outperformed CBA by more than 7% while there was some big moves in some of the beaten down commodities in particular following positive trends overseas.
The ASX200 enjoyed a strong session on Wednesday, briefly taking the market back above 8600 before drifting back slightly into the close. The miners led the gains from a points perspective, with the materials sector contributing almost 50% of the day's gain, led by BHP, which delivered 18% of the advance on its own. However, from a sheer performance perspective, the fund managers dominated the winners' enclosure, taking out the top 3 spots - more on these guys later.
Some volatility on the stock level hit today, with Dominos whacked as the new CEO resigns, Helius lost another big customer and fell ~20% while UBS scattered a couple of Tom Thumbs in the wealth/funds management sector, taking a more favorable stance – a topic we’ll look at tomorrow morning. By the close, the market was back testing 8600, some 80 points above the midday low, and the bullish vibe has now hit July!
The ASX200 has started July in subdued fashion, remaining unchanged after its first two trading sessions. As would be expected after a quiet start to the week and month, news was thin on the ground, but we did see some action starting to unfold on the stock level.
A lacklustre first trading session of FY26 with the index trying to push higher early but faltering before the closing bell. All those itching to sell CBA can now do so without paying tax for a while prompting some re-allocation amongst the banks - ANZ the standout today up +2.5% while CBA fell by 1.2%. It was fairly quiet elsewhere.
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