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Despite a red night on Wall Street and ongoing coronavirus fears, the Aussie share market broke into record territory once more today with its first rise this week.
With interim reporting season in full-swing, earnings reports from some of our market’s biggest players took investors’ minds off of the cautious global economic sentiment as they scrutinise financial figures.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index had a somewhat rocky start but broke out of the red in early afternoon trade to close 0.43 per cent up at a fresh high of 7144.60 points.
Today’s happy session was supported by Wesfarmers’ 5.7 per cent increase in half-year profits to $1.1 billion. Rob Scott’s retail conglomerate gained 2.87 per cent to its own fresh record close. Meanwhile, Domino’s Pizza’s half-year report saw shares spike 9.64 per cent to their highest point since May 2017. As a whole, the consumer discretionary sector rose by 1.8 per cent.
Consumer staples, however, did not fare as well. Part of Wesfarmers’ happy day was its $1.05 billion sale of Coles shares, which reduced its interest in the supermarket giant to 10.1 per cent. In response, Coles shares declined 4.24 per cent, dragging the sector to a 0.2 per cent decline.
Health care stocks were the best performers of the day. Cochlear led today’s charge with a delayed response to yesterday’s half-yearly report, today surging 11 per cent to add almost $25 to its share price and join the string of companies hitting new all-time highs.
Biotech giant CSL joined the party with its own record high as it gained 2.97 per cent.
The two most heavily-weighted sectors on our market were overshadowed today as the smaller sectors stole the spotlight.
Our two biggest mining stocks, BHP and Rio Tinto, lost 0.72 per cent and 0.22 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, Fortescue and Newcrest did what they could to offset the losses, posting 0.72 per cent and 3.25 per cent respective gains. As a whole, the materials sector gained 0.4 per cent.
Nevertheless, finance stocks left a stain on the happy trading day as the sector declined 0.7 per cent. Commonwealth Bank and Suncorp were the primary culprits, declining 0.49 per cent and 0.65 per cent, respectively. Westpac lost 0.50 per cent, while NAB gained 0.11 per cent and ANZ gained 0.41 per cent.
The heaviest drag on the market today, however, was the technology sector. While Xero gained 0.8 per cent and Afterpay 1.58 per cent, the gains paled in comparison to WiseTech’s massive 27.31 per cent crash. The heavy decline was the result of the company downgrading its 2020 earnings guidance by up to 42 per cent to between $145 million and $153 million.
WiseTech CEO Richard White said the COVID-19 coronavirus is to blame for the downgrade as it strikes a blow to manufacturing and export trade.
Over east, Asian markets shared a similarly green day to the ASX. When the Australian share market closed for the day, the Asia Dow was up 0.38 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 0.44 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite 0.30 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was the strongest eastern index, up 1.11 per cent just after its lunchtime break.
Back home, the Aussie dollar is 0.15 per cent stronger against the US dollar. Currently, one dollar picks up 66.94 US cents, 51.49 pence, and 73.66 Japanese Yen.
