- Updated
- Business
- Markets
- Wall Street
ASX hits new high as property and tech stocks rise
By Sumeyya Ilanbey
Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day.
The numbers
Technology and property stocks pushed the Australian sharemarket into record territory on Wednesday, as investors bet on the US Federal Reserve cutting interest rates sooner rather than later.
The Dow and Russell 2000 jumped overnight as investors looked beyond the giant companies to the broader market.Credit: Bloomberg
The S&P/ASX 200 rallied 58.6 points, or 0.73 per cent, to 8057.9 at the close. It slightly retreated from its intraday record high of 8081.6 points, which it hit around midday.
The lifters
Real estate investment trusts (REITs) lifted 1.49 per cent to record the largest gains on the local bourse, as mega-caps Goodman Group (up 1.16 per cent), Scentre Group (up 1.83 per cent) and Stockland Corporation (up 2.42 per cent) all rallied.
James Hardie (up 6.3 per cent) was the strongest large-cap, followed by Reece (up 4.74 per cent), Northern Star Resources (up 3.44 per cent) and WiseTech (up 3.33 per cent).
The beleaguered Star Entertainment Group climbed 2.02 per cent on Wednesday after turning on all its electronic gaming machines and tables again amid performance issues at the weekend.
The laggards
While all 11 sectors rose, energy (up 0.17 per cent) and mining (up 0.08 per cent) stocks recorded the smallest gains. The former was weighed down by Yancoal, which slipped 3.22 per cent, while mining giants BHP (down 0.88 per cent), Fortescue (down 1.02 per cent) and Rio Tinto (down 0.3 per cent) dragged the sector lower.
Other weak performers were South32 (down 0.56 per cent), JB Hi-Fi (down 0.52 per cent) and Seek (down 0.33 per cent).
Meanwhile, buy now, pay later (BNPL) operator Zip Co entered a trading halt after announcing a $267 million capital raising to pay down its debt. Zip said it expected to make cash earnings before tax, depreciation and amortisation of $67 million to $70 million for the financial year.
The lowdown
Capital senior financial market analyst Kyle Rodda said the local bourse’s fresh record high indicated a potential area of resistance in the short term.
“Market sentiment is very bullish due to the prospect of US rate cuts, potentially starting in September, along with deep deficit spending in a potential second [Donald] Trump term, the prospect of which is increasingly likely,” Rodda noted.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed 0.6 per cent to top 5660, setting its 38th record this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.9 per cent, while the Russell 2000 small-cap index gained 3.5 per cent, having its biggest five-day run since April 2020. The Nasdaq 100 added 0.2 per cent.
Wall Street extended a pattern of money rotating into small caps and out of the mega-cap “safety” since last week’s soft inflation data. Over the past four sessions, the Russell 2000 index of small firms has beaten the Nasdaq 100 by almost 12 percentage points — a feat not seen since 2011.
An equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 — where the likes of AI giant Nvidia carry the same heft as discount store owner Dollar Tree – outpaced the US equity benchmark. That index is less sensitive to gains from the biggest companies, providing a glimpse of hope the rally will broaden out.
Tweet of the day
Quote of the day
ACTU secretary Sally McManus says there are “good people in the CFMEU” and called on them to weed out corruption in the union after its construction and general division was suspended from Australia’s peak union body.
“It will be very important that the good people … draw on those deep principles that union has in its history to weed out all corruption and all connections with any organised crime, and to reassert the strong union values that I know,” she said.
You may have missed
Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue will slash 700 jobs and merge its mining and energy divisions, as the company tempers its ambition to be a major producer of the clean fuel hydrogen.
The $70 billion miner made the announcement that will mainly hit white-collar roles late on Wednesday shortly after its founder Forrest addressed its almost 16,000 staff.
Bloomberg
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.