Oz Market into Rarefied Air Indeed

By Glenn Dyer | More Articles by Glenn Dyer

The Australian sharemarket continued wandering higher into uncharted territory on Thursday, and so did a number of leading shares with the Commonwealth Bank again leading the way.

The ASX 200 built on Wednesday’s rise to finish at 7,260.1, a new record close after reaching a peak of 7,281.8 in the early part of the session.

The ASX 200 Index added more than 42 points on Thursday.

The Commonwealth Bank set a new record close of $101.21 after touching an intraday high of $101.85.

Westpac shares rose 1%, ANZ shares were up 1.4% and NAB shares ended with a gain of 0.9%.

BHP (up 0.4%) Rio Tinto (up 0.05%) and Fortescue Metals (up 0.7%) all saw gains on the day after iron ore prices consolidated the gains of 8% on Monday and Tuesday on Wednesday.

Retail trade rose an unchanged 1.1% in April from a preliminary estimate, the trade surplus came in at more than $8 billion for the 4oth month in a row.

Technology stocks gained a collective 1.6% (Afterpay shares were up 3.3% at the close) and consumer staples added 0.9% thanks to gains from Woolworths (1.1.4%) and Coles (up 0.9%).

Wesfarmers hit a new high of $56.67 before selling off a touch to close at $55.11 – a loss of 2% for the session after issuing a vague but worrying trading update (see separate story).

Shares in fintech firm Sezzle surged more than 22% to $9.20 as it sealed a three-year deal with giant American retailer Target to offer interest-free payment plans to Target customers via in-store and digital platform services.

Domino’s Pizza hit a new high of $117.96 but lost that to close lower at $114.15, a big swing in sentiment.

Super Retail Group has a similar experience – a new record high in early trading – $13.65 before second thoughts and investor selling sent it down 0.3% on the day where it closed at $13.12.

Energy companies did well for a second day in the wake of the OPEC+ group decision to maintain a slow rate of reduction in the size of its production cap.

Woodside Petroleum jumped 3.11% to $23.85, Santos was up 3.8% to $7.64, Origin leapt 6.16% to $4.48, Oil Search rose 4.1% to $4.03 and Beach Energy closed 5.8% higher at $1.37.

Qantas shares rose 2.5% to $4.91 and Telstra edged up 0.8% to $3.52.

Some of those early peaks and then falls in the rest of the session might be a worry if they start occurring in more leading stocks.

 

About Glenn Dyer

Glenn Dyer has been a finance journalist and TV producer for more than 40 years. He has worked at Maxwell Newton Publications, Queensland Newspapers, AAP, The Australian Financial Review, The Nine Network and Crikey.

View more articles by Glenn Dyer →