The ASX is looking at a solid 20 point plus opening this morning after another positive lead from Wall Street on Friday night.
The ASX 200 futures saw a 28 point or 0.4% gain after Wall Street closed up for the day and the week.
A gain of that size will produce a fresh 10-year high today as the market heads into the busiest week of the June 30 trading sessions when 70 ASX 200 stocks will report led by Woolworths and BHP (See separate story).
The local market was up 60.8 points, or 1%, last week closing at 6339.2 on Friday – a result stronger than it looked thanks to the side in metal prices on Thursday.
Telstra shares ended up 8.8% for the week at $3.09 after enjoying their biggest single day gain in a decade on Thursday, jumping 5.9% in the wake of an expected poor result and less than optimistic commentary about the coming year.
CSL shares jumped Its shares rose 6.5% to $215.67and revealing a stronger than expected result on Wednesday and higher dividend.
Seven West Media shares jumped more than 8% on Friday to $1.06 for a gain last week of just over 14% ahead of the release of its full year results tomorrow.
Mining services group Ausdrill came out of a two-day trading halt on Friday, announcing it had completed its institutional fund raising to help finance the $271 million takeover of underground mining contractor Barminco Holdings.
That saw a big thumbs up from the market with Ausdrill shares up 15.5% to $1.94.
South32 shares fell 7.7% last week ahead of what’s expected to be a solid full year result this Thursday. the company announced it had completed a $US1.3 billion ($1.8 billion) acquisition of Arizona Mining. Its shares fell to $3.35 as it was caught up with the sell off in metals on Thursday.
Packaging company Pact Group delivered a surprising weak result on Wednesday and the shares fell 20.7% last week to $4.25 this week.
Wesfarmers shares were lapped up by investors and they ended the week up 4.2% at $52.53, their highest close on record after what was a reasonable result for the year to June, the last with Coles included.
Shares in The Reject Shop also rose last week ahead of its 2017-18 figures being released later in the week – they ended at $5.75, up 1.4%. But no such luck for Woolies ahead of its annual result today. Its shares closed a touch weaker at $29.60, down 0.1%.
Among the financials, the last week of the royal commissions examination of the superannuation sector saw the Commonwealth and NAB quizzed for days, but apart from the 1.5% fall for the CBA and the 0.6% dip for the AMP, the others saw big gains.
ANZ shares jumped 3.3%, NAB shares were up 2.7% and Westpac shares added 2.5%, helping to explain the 1% rise in the index over the week.
Finally, electronics retailer JV Hi-Fi went against the trend and while the 2017-18 results were solid on Monday, the outlook was less than sparkling and yet investors overlooked that and sent the share sup 10.9% by Friday.
