The ASX 200 big guns started firing on Monday in a rare session of solidarity between the banks and heavyweight miners, the financials and materials combined to add 79-points to the ASX 200, which only closed up 66-points on the day! For a 0.8% gain it was unusual to see almost 50% of the main board close lower, such was the dominance of the likes of BHP (+2.5%) and Westpac (+2.7%).
A strong session on the ASX today, extending gains from the end of last week and bringing the index close to a one-month high. Miners, banks and Technology led the recovery, while Healthcare reached an eight-month high.
Shawn reckons the current market reminds him of an old 1980’s song – Reasons to be Cheerful – part 3 (here), hence the title of today’s note – certainly showing his age! Despite the ongoing unsettling news across the newswires, we remain positive on equities here, and today we’ll outline some of the reasons that underpin that view.
The ASX 200 finished a choppy week up +0.4% with the rate sensitive utilities (+3.6%), real estate (3.6%), healthcare (+3.5%) and consumer discretionary (2.4%) sectors leading the markets gains. Action on the index level was relatively quiet, however, it was anything but on the stock front with 10 stocks falling by more than 10%, for an average decline of mare than 16% while only two stocks rewarded investors with double digit gains - it felt like fund managers were actively tweaking their portfolios as we enter the December quarter.
The ASX finished the week on a firmer note, extending its recovery after a volatile few sessions. Market breadth improved, with 9 of 11 sectors higher and ~70% of ASX200 stocks finishing in the green.
The ASX 200 fell away on Thursday afternoon to close down -0.8%, with weakness in the influential banks and heavyweight miners again driving the index lower while further bargain hunting was evident in the rate-sensitive end of town, although not with any great gusto as would be expected when the index is tumbling toward a fresh 4-month low.
The ASX 200 failed to hold onto its early gains on Wednesday ultimately ending the session down -0.1%, smack in the middle of the day’s trading range, with the influential banks and miners dragging the index lower despite over 60% of the main board closing higher. The rate-sensitive stocks again caught our eye bucking the trend with all major retailers and real estate stocks outperforming the broader index.
The ASX finished slightly lower today snapping a four-day winning streak as the market struggled to follow another record session on Wall Street. A majority six of 11 sectors finished higher, though the heavyweight sectors weighed on the bourse overall. Healthcare and Real Estate led the market, while Financials and Materials were the biggest drags.
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