The ASX is looking at a moderate rise of around 18 points at the start of trading later this morning after the Friday night session on the futures market.
That will be after the market managed a 29.4 point or 0.4% rise last week, all thanks to the 0.4% rise on Friday, March 1.
Friday’s close for the ASX 200 Index of 6,192.7 was the highest level since September 2018.
The ASX 200 Index closed February up 304.4 points, or 5.2%, higher at 6,169 while the broader All Ordinaries rose 315.4 points, or 5.3%, to 6,252.7.
That was after a 4.1% rise in January.
Friday’s solid performance and futures session came on better than expected data from China (but ignored softening data from the US) and continuing hopes for a settlement of the Trump-China trade war.
This week sentiment will be tested by a string of data releases – the most important being the December quarter national accounts on Wednesday, building approvals and retail sales data for January and of course the biggest event this week in Australia, tomorrow’s March board meeting of the Reserve Bank.
The RBA board won’t move rates tomorrow and will wait for more data from the national accounts and other sources before looking at a rate cut – the election in May and the campaign leading up to the poll means any rate cut probably won’t come to July or August.
With that background and the release of monthly China data on Friday and next weekend, investors will probably play it cautious this week.
The last week of the reporting season saw some solid results, but also red ink, though the annual profit report of Rio Tinto and its year of capital management measures was hard to go past – $US13.5 billion in all.
The shares though failed to respond (the capital returns were well anticipated or partly announced last August), rising 0.2% for the week.
Shares in rival miner, BHP though fell 1.3%. The 5.1% jump in iron ore prices on Thursday and Friday will see more interest this week and in shares of Fortescue Metals whose shares slumped 5.4% over the five trading days.
The big banks were muted – the NAB had the best rise, 1.8%, ANZ shares were up 0.3%, Westpac, up 0.9% and CBA shares rose 0.7%. Those modest rises helped explain the modest rise of 0.4% in the ASX 200 for the week.
A2milk shares fell half a percent despite a very solid interim report and forecast of a solid second half, even though marketing spend and investment will rise.
Bingo Industries shares rose 24.5%, reversing the slide from a couple of weeks ago on a weak earnings outlook after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission gave Bingo the approval to proceed with its $578 million acquisition of the Dial-A-Dump business.
The interim results on Tuesday didn’t surprise the market because of the warning a week earlier.
Appen surged 24.9% after a better than expected interim result and upbeat outlook. Afterpay Touch shares rose 13.8% after it said it believed a report by the Senate economics references committee would not impact its business model.
oOh!Media shares fell 14.7% by Friday to $3.48 after CEO Brendon Cook said investors would not see the benefits of its Adshel outdoor advertising acquisition until later than expected in 2020.
And shares in poultry group, Ingham’s fell 8.7% reporting its interim results on Thursday which showed the company had been hit by higher costs from the drought.
Harvey Norman’s interim on Thursday was OK, not brilliant, with the Australian core not performing well. That didn’t worry investors and the shares rose 3.6% over the week.
