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The Aussie stock market is still glowing in the aftermath of the US-China trade deal from Wednesday night, today pushing on to some more fresh records.
Wall Street set the market up for success with some new records of its own as the general economic climate remains bullish for the time being. Breathing a sigh of relief on the back of the relaxed US-China trade tensions, the Dow Jones hit a new record close of 29,297.64 points overnight.
After smashing through the 7000-point mark for the first time yesterday, the ASX 200 continued its healthy rise and closed 0.32 per cent up at a new record 7064.10 points.
Today’s strong run was spearheaded by our mining darlings. BHP gained 1.17 per cent, Rio Tinto 1.78 per cent, and Newcrest Mining 0.82 per cent
Iron ore producer Fortescue Metals gained a hefty 3.73 per cent to close at a new 11-year high share price of $11.41 per share.
The materials sector performed strongly overall today but was dragged down by Nufarm. The agricultural chemical company slumped 10.02 per cent today after breaking the news that it would be reporting “significantly lower” earnings than predicted for the first half of the 2020 financial year.
Consumer stocks continued to push the market up. The A2 Milk Company led the charge with a 3.31 per cent gain, while retail conglomerate Wesfarmers kept things steady and rose 0.61 per cent.
Woolworths is edging back towards its all-time-high share price from November last year, today gaining 0.93 per cent and closing with shares worth $39.04 each. As for our other supermarket giant, Coles saw a somewhat-muted gain of 0.32 per cent.
Our big banks were mixed today. In what’s become an unusual movement, Commonwealth Bank was the worst of the big four with a 0.49 per cent loss. Westpac gained 0.32 per cent, NAB gained 0.39 per cent, and ANZ closed grey.
Investment banking giant Macquarie Group continued enjoying a new record share price, once again gaining 0.47 per cent and closing with shares worth $144.14 each.
Health care had some mixed closes as well. After hitting $300 per share for the first time ever yesterday, biotech giant CSL lost 0.26 per cent in today’s session. Shares are still above the new benchmark, worth $300.10 when the market closed.
Cochlear offset the loss with a 0.62 per cent gain. Ramsay gained 1.65 per cent, Sonic gained 0.65 per cent, but Fisher and Paykel lost 0.87 per cent.
The energy sector was the only red mark on an otherwise green day. Woodside lost 1.22 per cent, Santos lost 0.79 per cent, and Origin Energy 0.23 per cent.
Of the top 10 energy stocks by market cap, only Beach Energy escaped red with a 0.73 per cent gain.
Following trends from some of the more heavily-weighted sectors, technology stocks were also mixed. Xero lost 0.73 per cent, Computershare gained 0.39 per cent, Afterpay lost 0.06 per cent, and WiseTech gained 0.43 per cent.
Looking east, Asian markets were mostly green. When the ASX closed, the Asia Dow was up 0.21 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.43 per cent, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.05 per cent.
As for our local currency, on Aussie dollar currently buys 68.97 US cents, 52.77 pence and 76.01 Japanese Yen.
