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ASX edges higher ahead of key RBA rates decision
By Millie Muroi
Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day and how experts saw it.
The numbers
Healthcare and industrials companies helped bolster the Australian sharemarket ahead of a key Reserve Bank meeting on Tuesday, following a positive lead from Wall Street.
The S&P/ASX 200 was up 6.8 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 7410.4 at the close on Monday, even as consumer staples and utilities traded firmly in the red.
Wall Street jumped on Friday to cap another winning week. Credit: Bloomberg
The lifters
Healthcare (up 0.6 per cent) was the strongest sector on the local bourse, as EBOS gained 1.4 per cent, CSL advanced 0.7 per cent and Ramsay Healthcare added 2.2 per cent.
Industrials (up 0.3 per cent) were also stronger, with Cleanaway Waste Management (up 1.5 per cent), testing laboratory company ALS (up 1.4 per cent) and Auckland International Airport (up 1.3 per cent) all gaining.
Meridian Energy (up 4.4 per cent) and Lynas Rare Earths (up 2.6 per cent) were the biggest large-cap advancers despite the latter reporting a 47 per cent drop in sales revenue in the June quarter compared with the same period last year.
The laggards
Lithium miners were among the biggest large-cap decliners on Monday, as IGO (down 4.6 per cent), Allkem (down 2.5 per cent) and Pilbara Minerals (down 2.2 per cent) all slipped.
Shares in gold miner Silver Lake Resources plunged 20 per cent to 89¢, after it flagged lower sales of the precious metal in the coming financial year.
Consumer staples (down 0.8 per cent) also weighed the index, as supermarket giants Woolworths (down 1.3 per cent) and Coles (down 0.9 per cent) slid lower.
Utilities (down 0.5 per cent) were also weaker, as Origin Energy (down 0.6 per cent), Mercury NZ (down 0.2 per cent) and AGL (down 0.7 per cent) fell.
Meanwhile, Milklab maker Noumi’s share price shed 4 per cent as investors digested fourth-quarter figures released by the company after the market closed on Friday. While revenue increased 5.8 per cent to $141.5 million compared to the same quarter last year and is up 8.6 per cent compared to the previous quarter, Noumi confirmed it expected to post a net loss for the 2023 financial year.
The lowdown
TMS Capital portfolio manager Ben Clark said Monday was a quiet day for markets, with investors “sitting on their hands” ahead of the Reserve Bank’s interest rate decision on Tuesday and the beginning of earnings season.
“There was a stronger lead from the US, but it didn’t really flow through to Australian markets,” he said.
Clark said defensive sectors including consumer staples and utilities experienced an outflow of money, along with some materials stocks.
“There was a bit of selling in lithium stocks on the back of a weaker lithium price,” he said.
But healthcare companies gained after being out of favour recently.
“Healthcare is a part of the market that has lagged a bit because it has been used as a bit of funding source by investors to go into other areas,” Clark said.
Tweet of the day
Quote of the day
“There’s definitely been a sentiment shift on streaming globally,” Morningstar analyst Brian Han said, as the streaming sector maintained net growth, with 1.6 million new subscriptions taken out between April and June. That was despite Australians cancelling 1.25 million video-on-demand accounts in the same period.
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With AP
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