The Match Out: ASX flat with 1 day to go!

While the ASX ended flat today, most of the early gains were surrendered from 11 am onwards as divergence opened up across sectors, Utilities were weak, offset by solid gains by IT stocks that keyed off a good session in the US overnight.

• The S&P/ASX 200 lost -1pt/ -0.02% to close at 7194
• IT (+1.81%), Financials (+0.53%) & Consumer Discretionary (+0.43%) the standouts today.
• Utilities (-1.28%) and Real-Estate (-0.82%) the biggest drags
• With 1-day to go to end FY23, the ASX 200 is up 10.02% excluding dividends, and all sectors are currently trading green for the year.
• May retail sales were up +0.7% or +4.2% YoY, stronger than expected (+0.1%), most likely from earlier than normal end-of-financial year discounting.
• Short-dated bonds fell pushing yields higher, with interest rate markets again increasing the odds of an RBA hike next Tuesday to 45%, from about 30% after Wednesday’s soft CPI read.
• Elsewhere, total job vacancies were 431,600 for May, down 9000 or 2% from February 2023.
• Transurban (ASX: TCL) shares dropped 2.4 per cent after the ACCC raised concerns about its proposed acquisition of a majority interest in Horizon Roads
• St Barbara (ASX: SBM) -1.06% fell inline with gold stocks after announcing Andrew Strelein as chief executive.
• Booktopia (ASX: BKG) was halted pending a capital raise.
• REA Group (ASX: REA) +2.69% and Lend Lease (ASX: LLC) +2.43% caught our eye today, and both look primed for higher levels. We own the former, but not the latter (yet).
• Magellan (ASX: MFG) +2.6% built on recent gains, showing some $$ are moving up the risk spectrum into the stocks that have struggled this year.
• Lots of stocks trading ex-dividend today, the majority in the property sector.
• Iron Ore was up ~0.5% in Asia and is trading at $US114/dmt, the bears still calling for lower prices with consensus nearer $US80/dmt, but the bulk commodity is not listening yet!
• Gold was subdued, -US$3 to $US1904 at our close
• Asian stocks were mixed, Hang Seng off -1.1%, the Nikkei in Japan put on +0.18%, while China fell -0.11%
• US Futures are flat

ASX 200

FY23 to date

With 1 trading day left in the FY, here is a quick look at the stocks that have done particularly well, and those that haven’t. We’ll update this again tomorrow, however worth noting that the ASX 200 is up 10.02% excluding dividends, and all sectors are currently trading green for the year, although Real-Estate is just managing a gain in price terms. IT +35.34%, Materials +17.15%, Utilities +13.74%, Communications +12.72% & Energy +11.38% have all done better than the market.

The best and worst of FY23, with 1 day remaining

Broker Moves

• Bega Cheese Cut to Lighten at Ord Minnett; PT A$3.10
• Harvey Norman Raised to Neutral at Jarden Securities; PT A$3.40
• JB Hi-Fi Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley; PT A$38.90
• Harvey Norman Raised to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley
• Harvey Norman Raised to Hold at Jefferies; PT A$3.20
• Capitol Health Cut to Sector Perform at RBC
• Westpac Cut to Neutral at Goldman; PT A$23.39
• CSR Reinstated Hold at Bell Potter; PT A$5.60
• ANZ Group Raised to Buy at Goldman; PT A$26.04

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