The ASX looks like hitting new 10 year highs today after a solid 26 point gain in futures trading overnight Friday.
That’s despite the escalation of the China-US trade war which many analysts still claim could damage Australian exports to China.
But so far the market and investors have ignored those fears and the ASX has risen strongly (up 7.6% in the June quarter alone and 3.4% in the month of June).
The ASX 200 hit a new 10 year high, closing up 56.8 points, or 0.9%, at 6,272.3 points on Friday, the highest level since December 2007.
For the week the ASX 200 added 1.3% as Telstra shares rose nearly 6.9% for the week and 1.4% on Friday.
The AMP’s Dr Shane Oliver said in a weekend note that the solid gain on Friday could see the ASX 200 could reach, or at least come close to the AMP’s year-end target of 6,300 during trading today.
European shares rose 0.2% on Friday and the S&P 500 was up 0.8%. The US market was up 1.5% for the week (S&P 500) while the EuroStoxx 600 added 1.3%.
The Dow rose 99.74 points, or 0.4%, to 24,456.48. The S&P 500 index gained 23.21 points to 2,759.82, up 0.9%. The Nasdaq jumped 101.96 points, or 1.3%, to 7,688.39.
For the week, the Dow was up 0.8%, the S&P rose 1.5%, while the Nasdaq gained 2.4%.
Locally ANZ led the big banks’ charge, jumping 2% on Friday to $28.99, followed by Commonwealth Bank, up 1.6% to $75.67, while NAB rose 1.6% to $27.96 and Westpac added 0.9% to $29.78.
For the week the CBA was up 3.8%, ANZ shares added 2.6%, Westpac shares rose 1.6% and NAB shares were up 2%. Clearly Friday’s gains had a big influence with two thirds of the week’s 1.3% gain coming from the 0.9% rise on the day, thanks to the big banks.
The materials sector also lifted, led by South32, which jumped 2.6% to $3.62.
In companies news, Isentia Group rallied 12.1% to 78.5 cents after reaffirming its full-year earnings guidance of $32 million to $36 million and announcing a veteran Australian media executive Ed Harrison as the company’s new CEO.
But Elders shares plunged 15.4% to $7.06 after the rural services group delivered an update signalling its full-year earnings will be flat due to the impact of drought across large parts of Australia.
