The ASX is looking at a moderate start today after Wall Street finished higher on Friday (but lower over the week).
The ASX 200 futures market ended with a gain of 21 points or 0.4% on Friday which should produce a positive start to trade today.
That was after a 1.7% rise last week, most of which happened in Friday’s 1.51% gain as bank shares were boosted by the Government moving to relax the responsible lending laws.
The mooted law change (it still has to get through the Senate) saw investors pile into the big four banks on Friday.
The ASX 200 added 89 points to finish at 5964.9 thanks to a combined $15 billion rally by the banking majors: Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, NAB, and ANZ.
Commonwealth Bank added 3% to $66.13, Westpac rose 7.4% to $17.58, NAB climbed 6.9% to $18.37 and ANZ rose 6.3% to $17.93
Regional lenders such as Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (up 4.7%), Bank of Queensland (up 2.8%), and Suncorp (up 1.7%) also joined the rally as the financial sector enjoyed in its best session in more than three months.
Westpac’s strong rise came only a day after it copped a $1.3 billion penalty from AUSTRAC for breaching anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.
Elsewhere on Friday Solomon Lew’s Premier Investments reported a 29% jump in full-year net profit to $137.8 million.
But the company, which owns brands including Just Jeans, Portmans, and Jay Jays, warned it would close up to 350 stores across Australia and New Zealand if landlords didn’t give enough COVID-19 rent relief.
It has already decided to close four Smiggle stores in Hong Kong and 42% of its UK Smiggle outlets.
