The Australian share market has had a messy start to the week, with the ASX 200 closing 12.1pts or 0.16 per cent
lower to 7481.7. While tech and telecommunication services stocks rose most, declines from major miners, healthcare and insurance companies held the index back. Keep in mind that the local market has improved for four
straight weeks, hit a 9-month high on Friday and is on track to have its strongest start to a year in decades.
A number of major central banks will hold monthly meetings this week, the US earnings season will peak and a few stocks will kick off the Australian profit reporting season. The US Federal Reserve, the UK’s Bank of England and the European Central Bank are all expected to raise rates by 25 – 50 basis points on Thursday. Approximately 100 of the S&P500 stocks are expected to post quarterly earnings results this week, including Meta, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet (Google).
Insurance stocks came under significant selling pressure on Monday due to the rising costs relating to the New
Zealand floods. IAG said it has received over 5,000 claims while Suncorp (SUN) more than 3,000 relating to the
floods. Insurers expect the number of claims to increase in coming days.
Metcash (MTS) fell by 1.9 per cent following the resignation of its Food CEO. This comes a little over a month after the retirement of the grocery distributor’s Chief Financial Officer.
OZ Minerals (OZL) released a quarterly update this morning. The copper miner produced a record amount of the metal in the December quarter and warned of higher costs in 2023. While its shares were subdued on Monday, it has rallied by close to 50 per cent since BHP launched a takeover offer for the miner in August 2022.
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Core Lithium (CXO) and Lynas Rare Earths (LYC) were two of the stronger performers on Monday following the
release of their quarterly activity reports.
3.3bn shares were traded today, worth $6.2bn. 677 stocks rose, 724 fell and 400 finished unchanged.
Originally published by Steven Daghlian – Market Analyst (Author), CommSec
