The ASX started the week on a positive note, with health and consumer discretionary stocks among the winners.
The Australian sharemarket started the week on a positive note, with health and consumer discretionary stocks among the winners.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed 0.36 per cent higher at 7470.1, while the All Ordinaries Index rose 0.42 per cent to 7798.2.
OMG chief executive Ivan Tchourilov said the local bourse didn’t get much direction from international markets.
“Growing inflationary concerns don’t seem to be pricing into equities yet,” he said.
“The market will be watching Governor Lowe’s inflation speech tomorrow to further shape expectations.
“There is a growing separation between bulls and bears on the market, and we’re seeing more money leaving than is usual for this time of year.
“Investors are thinking whether inflationary concerns can overrun the usual bull run to Christmas and ward off buy-the-dip investors, who have buoyed markets so far.”
CommSec analyst Tom Piotrowski said National Australia Bank went ex-dividend, holding back the local bourse.
NAB backtracked 1.57 per cent to $29.40, Westpac lifted 0.62 per cent to $22.83, ANZ improved 0.74 per cent to $28.47, Commonwealth Bank eased 11 cents to $108.01 and Macquarie Group lifted 0.94 per cent to $203.16, while Bendigo and Adelaide Bank inched two cents higher to $9.14.
The top performing stock in the S&P/ASX200 was Mesoblast, which rocketed 11.77 per cent to $1.90.
“They released results from phase three testing of their Rexlemestrocel-L cell therapy, which treats chronic heart disease,” Mr Tchourilov said.
“Their therapy reduced the incidence of heart attacks or strokes by 65 per cent when paired with standard care, which is 33 per cent more than standard care alone.
“Given the prevalence of heart disease among developed nations, a commercialised treatment for the illness could prove highly lucrative – and save lives.”
Sleep device manufacturer ResMed was also strong, rising 5.16 per cent to $36.70.
Department store chain Myer improved 2.94 per cent to 52.5 cents after revealing it had used all of the $144m it received in JobKeeper payments in fiscal 2020 and 2021 to pay staff, saying the cash was “critical in maintaining connection to the workforce and ensured a significant number of roles could be maintained”.
Bedlinen retailer Adairs lifted 1.09 per cent to $3.72 after disclosing it had received more than $21m during the period and paid back $6.07m.
A strong performer was Mosaic Brands, which owns fashion chains including Rockmans and Noni B, up 4.92 per cent to 64 cents.
Domino’s Pizza appreciated 2.37 per cent to $124.60.
“You might recall that organisation had a pretty big stumble in the early part of the month over an update that went over poorly, but they seem to have found favour with investors since,” Mr Piotrowski said.
Woodside Petroleum added 1.12 per cent to $22.50 after announcing it would sell a 49 per cent stake in Pluto Train 2 in Western Australia – a key component of the proposed Scarborough gas development – to Global Infrastructure Partners.
“It reduces Woodside’s Pluto downstream spend from $US6.435bn to $US2.856bn,” RBC Capital Markets oil and gas analyst Gordon Ramsay said.
“This change significantly reduces Woodside’s high equity project delivery and cost risk, and the risk of an equity raising in the event Woodside pays for the full cost of the overall project development.”
Among the miners, Rio Tinto weakened 0.4 per cent to $91.84 and BHP declined 0.64 per cent to $37.46, but Fortescue lifted 1.21 per cent to $15.94 and Mineral Resources advanced 3.34 per cent to $41.17.
“Investors are very much focused on the preservation of the value of money and hedging against higher inflationary outcomes, so hard assets obviously become an important part of that,” Mr Piotrowski said.
Regional Express firmed 0.68 per cent to $1.49 after announcing the launch of twice daily flights between Melbourne and Brisbane from next month.
Rex said: “Brisbane becomes the fifth capital city destination in the Rex domestic network, enabling the airline to take a major step towards realising its long stated goal of servicing the so-called ‘Golden Triangle’ (Sydney-Melbourne-Brisbane)”.
The Aussie dollar was fetching 73.49 US cents, 54.67 British pence and 64.09 Euro cents in afternoon trade.
Originally published as Australian sharemarket gains ground, health and consumer discretionary stocks find favour
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