The Match Out: ASX trickles lower, Banks drag, AGL Energy (AGL) rallies

An eventful week in markets came to a close with the ASX down a touch, although we did see a spirited fight back from an early sell-off with the ASX 200 rallying +32pts from the day’s low. Banks on the nose still but more companies finished in the green than the red – some corporate activity implying that it’s not all doom & gloom out there!

• The ASX 200 finished down -13pts/ -0.19% at 6955
• The Utilities sector was best on ground (+0.73%) while Materials (+0.56%) & Consumer Discretionary (+0.19%) were also solid.
• Financials (-1.15%) and Energy (-0.34%) the weakest links.
• Gold stocks enjoyed a solid session today as spot gold is threatening the ~US$2000 level – we think it’s a matter of time until it breaks out. Newcrest (ASX: NCM) +1.78%, Evolution (ASX: EVN) +2.78% & St Barbara (ASX: SBM) + 4.03%.
• Nice to see MM hold 4 of the top 10 winners for the week (& 1 loser) as the market lost 0.57% overall – not a bad effort considering.
• AGL Energy (ASX: AGL) +5.97% upgraded by Barrenjoey this morning to buy equivalent - the market is slowly turning more bullish on this as the bulge brackets move past the recent miss in earnings – FY24 and beyond is really what counts here. We own it in our Income Portfolio.
• Estia (ASX: EHE) +14.1% received a takeover offer by Bain Capital at $3, a 28% premium to last however it rallied for the 2 days before the announcement was out – more loose lips perhaps!
• Block (ASX: SQ2) -18.4% whacked on a short report from Hindenburg Research, who claim that Block facilitated scammers who took advantage of government stimulus programs during the pandemic.
• Aussie Broadband (ASX: ABB) -2.18% hit on a broker downgrade, with JPM cutting from Buy to Hold. This follows ABB upgrading in 1H23 rallying to ~$3.30 and now having given up -10% since results – we like ABB, our biggest weighting in the Emerging Companies Portfolio with the telco delivering +30% organic growth (revenue line) year on year. It was down ~6% early on today.
• SRG Global (ASX: SRG) +4.29% has enjoyed a stellar bounce back from weakness, Harry bought that well for his Emerging Companies Portfolio this week.
• Iron Ore was a touch lower in Asia today.
• Gold was up overnight to ~US$1997 before tracking down -US$6 in Asian trade today, settled $US1991 at our close.
• Asian stocks were lower, Hong Kong down -0.46%, Japan -0.22% while China was off -0.57%.
• US Futures are all up, around +0.20%

ASX 200 Chart - Intraday

ASX 200 Chart - Daily

Sectors This Week – Source Bloomberg

Stocks This Week – Source Bloomberg

Broker Moves

• Aussie Broadband (ASX: ABB) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan; PT A$3.40
• Eagers Automotive (ASX: APE) Raised to Buy at Bell Potter; PT A$15.25
• Lifestyle Communities (ASX: LIC) Lifestyle Communities upgraded to overweight from underweight at Barrenjoey
• OFX Group (ASX: OFX) Group downgraded to market-weight from overweight at Wilsons
• AGL Energy (ASX: AGL) upgraded to overweight from neutral at Barrenjoey

Major Movers Today

Have a great weekend

The Market Matters Team

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