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ASX dips as healthcare stocks, financials weigh on market
By Millie Muroi
Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day, and how experts saw it.
The numbers:
The Australian sharemarket started the week down on Monday, weighed down by healthcare and financials on the back of more Wall Street weakness.
The S&P/ASX 200 was down 16.1 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 7309.2 at the close even as real estate investment trusts (REITS), utilities and consumer discretionary companies traded higher.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index has had four-straight losing sessions.Credit: AP
The lifters
IG Market’s list of most traded shares. Monthly volume traded on the IG share trading platform by July 31.
Lithium miners were among the biggest large-cap advancers as Allkem (up 2.4 per cent) and Pilbara Minerals (up 3.8 per cent) rallied after the latter announced a “substantial increase” in mineral resources at its Pilgangoora operation in Western Australia.
Small-cap lithium developer Lithium Australia rallied 70 per cent after it signed a deal in which Mineral Resources would fund the development and operation of a pilot plant and engineering study for a $4.5 million demonstration plant.
Shares in GUD holdings (up 3.7 per cent) also lifted after the company sold a business called Davey Water products, and became a pure-play automotive products company. TPG gained 1 per cent after it announced that John Boniciolli, would become the company’s new chief financial officer. Boniciolli held the same role at Domain Holdings.
REITS (up 0.7 per cent) was the strongest sector despite Dexus (up 0.5 per cent) reporting a statutory net loss after tax of $8.4 million for the 2023 financial year due to $41.3 million of asset devaluations. Goodman Group (up 0.9 per cent), Scentre (up 1.1 per cent) and GPT (up 0.7 per cent) all advanced.
Consumer discretionary stocks (up 0.5 per cent) were also higher, with Wesfarmers gaining 0.5 per cent and Lottery Corporation adding 0.4 per cent.
The laggards
On the losing side, healthcare stocks (down 1.1 per cent) declined as ResMed (down 4.2 per cent) and CSL (down 1.1 per cent) slipped.
Financials (down 0.4 per cent) were also weaker, with all four big banks trading flat or in the red.
NAB and CBA were flat ahead of the latter’s earnings results on Wednesday, Westpac fell 0.7 per cent and ANZ slipped 0.6 per cent.
Shares in Suncorp were down 2.6 per cent following Friday’s rejection by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission of the planned acquisition of the bank by ANZ.
The iron ore majors were also in the red following a 0.1 per cent dip in the iron ore price. BHP lost 0.5 per cent, Fortescue declined 1.6 per cent and Rio Tinto fell 0.8 per cent.
The lowdown
Jessica Amir, a market strategist at trading platform Moomoo, said the Australian market was weaker ahead of results from some of the country’s major companies, which are due this week.
“CBA, which is the biggest bank in Australia, is reporting this week and investors aren’t expecting very rosy things,” she said.
“We’re likely to see the strain of higher interest rates and inflation on Australian big banks and households over the last 12 months, so there’s a bit of profit-taking before CBA’s results.”
But Amir said companies such as Treasury Wine Estates rallied on hopes that China would scrap its wine tariffs on Australia.
Stocks fell on Friday to close out a rare losing week for Wall Street following mixed reports on the US job market and two of the market’s most influential stocks.
Tweet of the day
The S&P 500 dropped 0.5 per cent. It was the fourth-straight fall for Wall Street’s main measure of health after it set a 16-month high at the start of the week.
Quote of the day
“We expected a number and every time we do it, the appetite for sports streaming in particular is quite extraordinary,” said Seven chief executive James Warburton, as record numbers of viewers flock to the network’s coverage of the Matildas at the Women’s World Cup.
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Veteran strategist Gerard Minack says that even if rates don’t climb any higher, this may not spare Australia from taking an economic hit, which would be negative for major sectors of the local sharemarket.
With AP
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