Not the strongest of July’s to start a new financial year with the ASX 200 up just over 1.1%. That was a third of the 3.4% jump in June.
The Australian sharemarket traded in and out of the red before finishing marginally higher on the last day of July yesterday.
The S&P-ASX 200 index opened up 0.2 per cent despite the US S&P 500 index losing 0.6% on Monday night, but fell, rose and then eased right on the bell by 15 points to close up 1.8 points or a tiny 0.03%. The market sought of ran out of puff in the last two days of the month after peaking at 6,300.2 last Friday with a 55 plus point jump.
The small 1.1% gain was due to the outperformance by BHP which ended up more than 5.6% for the past five trading days.
In fact it was the solid rise in that time that helped the shares close July with a gain of 5.5%.
ANZ shares jumped 4.3% and NAB shares were up 2.1% and the Commonwealth’s shares rose 1.1% and those rises explain the modest rise in the ASX 200 in the month.
The CBA is due to release its 2017-18 results next week and it will reveal massive one off losses of $2 billion or more.
Westpac shares were up just over 0.2%, Macquarie shares eased 0.2% but QBE shares were up nearly 2%.
IAG shares lost 1.8% but that was nowhere near the spanking handed out to the AMP whose shares lost another 7.3% in value last month to take the slide so far this year to more than 34%.
As well as BHP, Rio shares fell just over 1% in the month, but OZ Minerals shares gained 1%.
The previously ‘hot’ dairy sector went cold with shares in A2 Milk sliding more than 10% and rival Bellamy’s shedding a nasty 27%.
Retailing was mixed – Woolies shares ended with a small 1.6% drop, Wesfarmers’ shares lost 0.4%, the Reject Shop saw its shares up 1.2% and the embattled Myer was a star with its shares jumping more than 17% (from a very low base to 47 cents!).
The big loser in this area was Kogan.com which saw the slide continue in the last fortnight of July for a total loss of a very nasty near 34%.
Telstra was back in the green with a 5.6% rise (outperforming the wider market and making fools of quite a few prominent analysts).
The media sector was set alight – for a day – by the news of the Nine bid for Fairfax. Nine shares paid the price losing 8.7%, Fairfax shares rose 8% and Domain shares (it’s 60% owned by Fairfax) rose 0.95%.
Seven West Media’s big mid year run ended in july with the shares losing 6.7% as investors realised it was the unwanted bridesmaid at the Nine-Fairfax nuptials.
CSL starred for much of the month with the shares rising above $200, then retreating (to end on $196.61) for a loss of 0.6% – a one month wonder? We will know with next month’s results and news of a renewed buyback.
Shares in crop protection group, Nufarm slumped nearly 19% with news that Australian earnings will be all but wiped out by the impact of the growing drought.
Rising oil prices helped that sector – Woodside shares rose nearly 2% for the month and Santos shares were up 2.7% as it continued to emerge from a near takeover in May.
