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Good afternoon. I’m Jonathon Davidson with HotCopper’s Market Close for Thursday 20th of Feb.
It was another fairly forgettable day for the ASX. The 200 index ended down over -1%, meaning that we’re back down into the 8,300s.
It feels like only a few days ago the ASX notched new record highs in the 8,500pts+ territory. Thank risk-off sentiment for Australian banks after Bendigo and NAB posted lacklustre results, Donald Trump’s endless nattering, a resilient Australian labour market and a cautious US Fed.
Looking at sectors, Real Estate tanked hardest down -2.10%, followed by health care and financials also steeply in the red.
Financials will be one to watch, seeing as CBA fell today in line with its peers – seeing as CBA carries the market with it, persistent weakness there could be an issue.
At around 5pm Sydney time on Thursday, ASX futures point to a flattish green Friday. Of course, this could all change on a whim.
Looking at the greens,
Megaport jumped just short of 20% today as annual recurring revenue jumped 18%, putting the Australian tech heavyweight in line with its US peers, as far as tech sector strength goes. Shares closed at $11.40.
Former darling Droneshield meanwhile jumped back into the 70c range up 16% as $14.6M dollars worth of shares traded hands on Thursday. The only thing is, the company didn’t post any news – one to keep an eye on.
Finally, Whitehaven Coal jumped around 9% as it confirmed Japan’s Nippon Steel and another Japanese player will take a combined 30% stake in the company’s Queensland-based Blackwater project. Bought off BHP only years ago, the company at one point looked like it had bought a lemon. Shares last traded at $5.65.
And as for the reds:
Super Retail Group got slammed as it failed to meet expectations in its latest earnings; the stock fell 12.5%, closing at $14.17 per share.
Rio TInto closed down -1.5% as a weak Chinese economy hurts its books; if this was particualrly surprising to anyone, it could be fair to ask where they were all last year. Shares closed slightly above a still lofty price of $120 dollars per share.
Finally, NAB group continued declining for a second day on Thursday following a weaker than expected result on Wednesday. Bendigo and NAB have both come together as earlier discussed to dent risk-on sentiment for the financials index. NAB last traded at $35.11.
That’s Market Close from HotCopper, I’m Jonathon Davidson, have a great night and we’ll see you tomorrow.
