The Match Out: Despite all the doom & gloom, ASX up ~5% for the Quarter

A solid day to end the week, month & quarter with the ASX putting in strong back-to-back sessions, the market up +3.2% this week alone led by a strong bounce back in Material stocks. For the quarter, the market was up +5.40% inclusive of dividends with the Consumer Discretionary sector up an impressive 12% - this goes to show that market performance doesn’t correlate with mainstream media headlines, so much for the doom & gloom in retail!

• Today, the ASX 200 finished up +55pts/ +0.78% at 7177
• The Material sector was best on ground (+1.88%) while Healthcare (+1.09%) & IT (+0.83%) were also strong.
• Energy (-0.84%) and Staples (-0.03%) the weakest links.
• End of month & end of the quarter and it’s been a good one for Market Matters Portfolios – more details out next week however the Flagship Growth Portfolio is up north of 7.5% for the period while it’s added ~22% FY23 to date.
• IT’s great to see the increase of investors using our new digital investment platform, Market Matters Invest making it incredibly easy to invest in our portfolios – welcome aboard!
• If you’d like to sign up for our Free Monthly Portfolio Update report, you can do so here which provides monthly insight into performance and portfolio positioning.
• More bank downgrades today, this time CLSA reducing NAB, WBC & BOQ, coming on the back of a sector downgrade from UBS earlier in the week. The old saying that analysts make sheep look like independent thinkers rings true!
• Porter Davis Homes, the country’s 12th-largest home builder, has gone into liquidation, more than 1700 projects in limbo across Victoria and Queensland.
• EML Payments (ASX: EML) +30.95 rallied hard (from a dismal base) after the Central Bank of Ireland provided some certainty around their future, instilling a nil percent growth cap to PFS card services until 31^st March 2024. Not long ago this would have been taken as a negative, however, the SP has fallen some much the news is actually a net positive. They re-affirmed guidance for FY23, being revenue of $235-$245m and underlying EBITDA of $26 - $34m.
• HMC Capital (ASX: HMC) -1.64% completed a $125m placement at $3.50 to help fund the purchase of some Healthscope assets.
• We had Tom Alan in today, Energy Analyst from UBS refreshing his views on the sector. They have buys on AGL Energy (ASX: AGL), although the stock is now at their $8.05 PT, Beach (ASX: BPT) & Santos (ASX: STO). We own AGL and Woodside (ASX: WDS) across MM portfolios – they have a hold on WDS, preferring STO.
• Iron Ore was ~1.2% higher in Asia today supporting Fortescue (ASX: FMG) +4.07% & RIO +2.46%
• Gold was up overnight to ~US$1980 and flat today – Evolution (ASX: EVN) +2.97% a standout while Newcrest (ASX: NCM) +1.05% is knocking on the door of 12 month highs.
• Asian stocks were solid, Hong Kong up +0.84%, Japan +1.08% while China was up +0.21%
• US Futures are all up, around +0.20%

ASX 200 Chart - Intraday

ASX 200 Chart - Daily

Sectors this week – Source Bloomberg

Stocks this week – Source Bloomberg  

Broker Moves

• Westpac (ASX: WBC) Cut to Accumulate at CLSA; PT A$22.80
• Bank of Queensland (ASX: BOQ) Cut to Reduce at CLSA; PT A$6.20
• NAB (ASX: NAB) Cut to Reduce at CLSA; PT A$27.90
• Nib (ASX: NHF) Raised to Overweight at Jarden Securities; PT A$7.50
• Mincor (ASX: MCR) Cut to Underweight at Jarden Securities; PT A$1.40
• HMC Capital (ASX: HMC) Raised to Reduce at CLSA; PT A$3.81

Major Movers Today

Have a great night

The Market Matters Team

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