Tuesday 1st August 2023
Australian sectors push higher, as the RBA pauses on interest rate hikes.
The S&P/ASX 200 finished up +0.5%, and the All Ordinaries rose +0.5% as all sectors finished in the green following the RBA’s decision to keep rates on pause for the second consecutive month. Interest rate sensitive Information Technology finished highest up +1.14% for the day, driven by WiseTech shares up +0.9%, Xero up +1.4% and NEXTDC up +2.4%. Late in trading, the real estate sector also rebounded with Stockland up +1% and Mirvac up +0.9%. Consumer-related stocks also experienced notable demand with JB Hi-Fi’s stock up +1.9%, Woolworths up +1.2%, and Metcash up +1.1%, with supermarkets consolidating losses from yesterday.
TPG, Credit Corp, Patriot Battery Metals & money managers
TPG shares experienced an impressive +11.6% surge off the back of negotiations for a multibillion-dollar sale and leaseback of its non-mobile fibre assets with Vocus, a company backed by Macquarie. In other news, Credit Corp faced a significant decline of -12.6% after reporting a -5% drop in net profit for the full year. Whilst Patriot Battery Metals saw a notable increase of +10.6% in its shares following the announcement of a $120 million share placement with Albemarle, a chemicals giant listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Money managers also finished on a positive note with Perpetual up +2%, Magellan Financial up +2%, and Pinnacle Investment up +1.3%.
The surging seven & overnight earnings updates
The Nasdaq 100 (with 50% of its holdings exposed to the information technology sector) hashad a substantial increase in its share price over the last 5 months and has surged +44% in 2023 – primarily driven by artificial intelligence. Interestingly, year to date approximately 75% of the overall gains in the S&P500 can be attributed to just seven companies, including NVIDIA +178%, Meta +131%, Tesla +96%, Amazon +51%, Apple +43%, Microsoft +38%, and Alphabet +34%. In other earnings news overnight, Caterpillar gained +8.9% following a positive second-quarter profit report but warned about a potential decline in sales and margins for the current quarter. Uber faced a setback as it dropped by -5.7% due to missing second-quarter revenue expectations in the ride-hailing industry, and Pfizer experienced fluctuating trading and a slight decrease in stock value. Pfizer stated quarterly revenue failed to meet Wall Street expectations, primarily impacted by declining sales of its COVID-19 products.
Drew is editor of The Inside Network's publications and a principal adviser at Wattle Partners.
