The Aussie sharemarket wrapped the week up on a positive note and recouped some of its losses yesterday, with the ASX 200 rising 0.5 per cent or 34.6 points to 6892.5. Six (of 11) sectors and 52 per cent of stocks gained ground. The Energy sector rose 3.4 per cent and was the best performing sector today despite oil prices falling by around 2 per cent overnight. Major miners also helped lift the index, and coal miners Coronado Global Resources (CRN),
Whitehaven Coal (WHC) and New Hope Corporation (NHC) rose by 8.6 per cent, 6.0 per cent and 5.9 per cent, respectively. Healthcare stocks fell for the third straight day, losing another 0.8 per cent today.

The Aussie sharemarket posted back-to-back weekly gains, rising another 1.6 per cent this week. Most sectors improved, with Energy stocks (up 5.0 per cent) rising most. Mining stocks snapped three straight weeks of declines after rallying 2.6 per cent, boosted partly by optimism that China will ease Covid-19 restrictions. The week’s best performer, Coronado Global Resources (CRN), rose 22 per cent while Domino’s Pizza (DMP) was the worst performer, declining 12.5 per cent.

Digital payments company Block (SQ2), the owner of Afterpay, was the best performer today and rose 10.9 per cent. This comes after it released better-than-expected earnings results last night in the US. Its share price in after-hours trading improved by 13 per cent.

Magellan Financial Group (MFG) released a funds-undermanagement (FUM) update for October today. Its total FUM improved by 0.2 per cent to A$51 billion, driven by a 3.5 per cent increase in its Retail FUM to A$20.5 billion. However, it noted net outflows of $2.4 billion. Shares of the fund-manager closed 2.4 per cent lower.

Pendal Group (PDL) released its annual results. It posted a 2.6 per cent decrease in its revenues to $611 million, and a 31.5 per cent slip in its statutory profits to $113 million. Its underlying profits however rose by 17 per cent to $194.2 million. The money manager declared a final dividend of 3.5 cents-per-share and said that its ‘transaction with Perpetual (PPT) remains on track for completion in January 2023’. PDL fell 0.2 per cent today.

 

Top Australian Brokers

 

On the economic front, the Reserve Bank (RBA) released its monetary policy statement today. It cut near-term forecasts for economic growth and raised forecasts for inflation. Forecasts assume a cash rate peaking at 3½ per cent in mid-2023 before easing in 2024.

Tonight in the US, jobs data is scheduled to be released. Forecasts suggest that the unemployment rate would edge higher to 3.6 per cent, with 195k jobs to be added. Any surprises could set the tone as to how our market opens on Monday.

Today, 2.8bn shares were traded, worth $7.3bn. 676 stocks rose, 624 fell & 412 finished unchanged.

Originally published by Divik Nigam – (Author), CommSec