The Australian share market narrowly avoided another weekly loss as it traded sideways for most of the Friday session.
Despite another downbeat night on Wall Street, the benchmark ASX 200 index fought off the worst of the losses today and closed a marginal 0.32 per cent lower at 5864.5 points.
This ends puts the index at a slim 0.1 per cent weekly gain — the first in the past five weeks. Moreover, it ends a seven-session reversal spree; since September 9, the ASX 200 has alternated between red and green every session until today’s red close.
It was a mixed day for our 11 market sectors today, with the industrials sector performing the worst. Toll road operator Transurban Group retreated 3.14 per cent and logistics specialist Brambles lost 1.89 per cent. Nevertheless, the losses were somewhat-offset by Auckland Airport’s 0.31 per cent gain.
Shopping centre and property groups weighed down the real estate sector, with Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield slumping a heavy 7.28 per cent. Scentre group lost 2.16 per cent, Dexus lost 2.06 per cent, and Stockland lost 1.89 per cent.
Meanwhile, our tech sector broke free of the Nasdaq’s influence and rallied despite U.S. tech index’s 1.48 per cent fall. As has been the recent trade in the Aussie sector, Afterpay set the tone for the day and tacked on 2.65 per cent. NEXTDC rose for the fifth session in a row to end the week 6.79 per cent higher than where it started. Xero gained 1.58 per cent.
Taking a look at our market heavyweights, our materials and financials sectors went in different directions.
Our big iron ore miners largely recovered from yesterday’s sell-off, with BHP up 1.31 per cent and Rio Tinto up 1.27 per cent. Fortescue Metals gained 0.99 per cent.
The gold subsector supported the resources gain. Saracen Mineral Holdings put on 4.23 per cent, while De Grey gained 3.33 per cent. Evolution gained 0.97 per cent and Newcrest gained a slight 0.18 per cent.
Our financials sector, however, slipped 0.57 per cent today to post a weekly loss of 1.8 per cent. Our big four banks each closed red, with ANZ down 1.44 per cent. Westpac lost 1.01 per cent, Commonwealth Bank lost 0.97 per cent, and NAB lost a skinny 0.06 per cent.
It’s green across the board for major Asian indexes today. As the ASX closes for the week, the Asia Dow is up 0.32 per cent and the Nikkei 225 is up 0.18 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is 0.58 per cent higher and the Shanghai Composite is up 1.87 per cent.
The Australian dollar is slightly higher today, currently buying 73.16 US cents, 56.45 pence, and 11.84 South African Rand.
Today’s ups and downs
Another day, another unexplained share-price surge. The market regulator has been kept on its toes this week as a string of quiet companies saw their share price skyrocket without explanation. Today, copper explorer Coppermoly (ASX:COY)soared as much as 355.6 per cent before being slapped with a trading halt and a share price query. When it said it didn’t know why shares were soaring, trading resumed and it pared its win back 55.56 per cent. The company closed with shares worth 1.4 cents each.
It was a similar story for Riedel Resources (ASX:RIE), which surged 110 per cent without any fresh news. The ASX froze the company’s shares at midday, worth 2.1 cents each. Riedel shares remained locked up for the rest of the day.
Meanwhile, Admiralty Resources (ASX:ADY), which was the subject of yesterday’s stellar-but-unexplained run, came tumbling back down today — again with no market updates to justify the move. The company closed 27.78 per cent lower at 1.3 cents per share.