ASX closes higher as big banks and utilities rally

Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day.

The numbers

The Australian sharemarket ended the week in the green on Friday, trading higher for the second consecutive day as energy, real estate and bank stocks rallied. The local index rose despite a negative lead from Wall Street overnight where the market’s post-Donald Trump election rally continued to lose momentum.

The S&P/ASX 200 gained 61.20 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 8285.20, with all the bourse’s 11 industry sectors rising, bar healthcare.

Wall Street slid lower as the Trump victory trade continued to lose momentum.Credit: Bloomberg

The lifters

Chemical and explosives manufacturer Orica was one of the day’s best-performing large cap stocks, up 3 per cent after it posted a significant rise in full-year profit on Thursday.

The utilities sector rose 2.4 per cent, as energy stocks including Origin (up 2.4 per cent), APA (up 2.5 per cent) and AGL (up 2.3 per cent) helped to buoy the market.

Real estate stocks also rallied, with shares from property group Lendlease rising 2.7 per cent, after chief executive Tony Lombardo announced the company would launch a $500 million share buyback “in the near-term”.

Supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles remained in the green, up 0.7 and 0.9 per cent respectively, despite both companies notifying the market that class action proceedings against them have been commenced in the Federal Court of Australia.

Both Woolworths and Coles said they would defend the proceedings commenced by Gerard Malouf & Partners, which relate to allegations first brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in September. The watchdog alleges the supermarkets misled consumers through discount pricing claims on hundreds of common supermarket products.

Thousands of customers are demanding they be reimbursed as part of the class action, which is suing for damages on behalf of up to 13.5 million Woolworths and Coles loyalty customers.

Some of the major banks rebounded at midday to help push all big four banks into the green, lifting the financials sector 1.5 per cent higher. CBA, the nation’s biggest lender and the biggest stock on the Australian sharemarket, rose 1.5 per cent. Westpac and ANZ made gains, up 1.9 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively, while National Australia Bank added 1.3 per cent.

The laggards

The only sector in the red was healthcare, falling 1.8 per cent. It was dragged down by CSL, which fell 2.5 per cent.

The materials sector made modest gains throughout the day to close 0.5 per cent higher, despite Fortescue and Rio Tinto declining, down 1.2 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.

Mining giant BHP edged up 0.2 per cent after reporting to the market that a court in Brazil had cleared the company of any criminal liability in relation to the Samarco dam collapse in 2015 – which killed 19 people.

BHP cited media reports that said the court found there was no evidence to support any causal link between the company and the dam’s failures.

Credit: IG

The lowdown

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver described global sharemarkets as “messy” over the past week, compounded by the ongoing rise in bond yields and a wind back in expectations of rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve.

Oliver said Donald Trump’s election victory, and its implications, remained the key focus for many investors, while the initial knee-jerk market response to Trump’s victory has become more nuanced over the past week.

In Australia, Oliver said the mix of data seen over the past week is unlikely to move the RBA towards hiking or cutting rates.

“We still expect the first rate cut in February, by which time jobs data is likely to be weaker and December quarter inflation data is likely to have shown a further step down in underlying inflation,” he said.

”We concede there is a risk it could be delayed even further, with the money market now not fully pricing in a rate cut until July, but it looks like its fluctuations are partly being driven by US interest-rate expectations.”

Overnight on Wall Street, US shares slipped on Thursday as the market’s big burst following Donald Trump’s election continued to cool.

The S&P 500 fell 0.6 per cent, though it’s still near its all-time high set on Monday. The Dow Jones dropped 207 points, or 0.5 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.6 per cent.

Tweet of the day

Quote of the day

“The rise of China as an economic power is a fact. It’s not theoretical. It’s something that is a fact. And it will also be increasingly driven by economic factors and by population, as well.”

That’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who said Chinese investment presents an opportunity for Australia, as Chinese President Xi Jinping seeks to gain more economic allies across the Asia Pacific.

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with AP

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