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Good Afternoon and welcome to Market Close for Thursday of Week 48, I’m Jon Davidson. The day started strong-ish, but as we started heading into the final leg of afternoon trades, it started looking like a fade was on the cards.
Whether or not this is the Australian market digesting yesterday’s higher than expected CPI read, or whether it’s just profit takers moving in early to snatch some weekend play money, isn’t really clear.
It’s probably safe to say it was a mix of both, especially given the strength in gold prices suggests strength in materials, which was actually the second worst sector in the latter half of the afternoon. IT led the gainers, bouncing back from a shocking few weeks.
Turning to companies in the green,
Wisetech Global jumped another 7% intraday to just north of $70.00 a share as some investors at least clearly think Wisetech’s troubles have led to overselling; ASIC raided the company’s offices around a fortnight ago.
Digico Infrastructure REIT meanwhile popped over +5% to above $2.60/sh as the latest CapEx data from the ABS shows that the data centre boom has come to Australian shores with that category lifting private sector spend by 11% versus the prior period.
Finally, Sunrise Energy Metals jumped nearly +25% based on no news but it appears coverage in the Financial Times was enough to attract presumably offshore investors; the company is developing a scandium mine in Australia.
And as for the reds,
Australian Ethical Investments slogged nearly -10% as the company revealed it’s been ordered to conduct a review into itself, or at least get somebody else to, presumably around its portfolio constituents, but information was somehat vague.
Elsewhere, Harvey Norman down over -4% in afternoon trades after releasing earnings yesterday which weren’t exactly terrible but clearly weren’t a cause for multi-day optimism. Inflation implications could also be factoring into calculus here when it comes to Australians’ willingness to spend ahead of the new year.
Finally, BHP Ltd down less than half a percent in afternoon trades suggesting no drastic sell-off but still worth considering after a final failed attempt to rouse Anglo American’s interest earlier this week, the ongoing Simandou mine uncertainties, and ongoing reports of disputes with Chinese ore buyers.
That’s Market Close for Thursday, I’m Jon Davidson, have a great night and we’ll see you tomorrow for Friday.
