Watch: The good, the bad and the ugly stocks of the ASX

This is a recording of a live panel session from Livewire Live 2024, held on Tuesday 17 September 2024.

Investing in the stock market can be a little bit of a venture into the Wild West at times, but how do you split the heroes from the villains? To quote the old spaghetti Western, “People with ropes around their necks don’t always hang” and likewise, companies you expect to fail may not be the ones that cause you the most trouble.

In the third panel of Livewire Live 2024, the experts nominated their market heroes “the Good” and then explored the themes and stumbling blocks they see going forward – aka “the Bad and the Ugly”.

Will traditional stalwarts like the Big Banks, CSL and Woolworths win hearts, or should you be looking somewhere different?

Moderated by Centennial Asset Management's Matthew Kidman, you'll hear from:

• Dr David Allen, Head of Long/Short Strategies, Plato Investment Management 
• Ben Griffiths, Executive Chairman, Eley Griffiths Group 
• James Hawkins, Partner & Head of the Catalyst Fund, L1 Capital 
• Dushko Bajic, Head of Australian Equities Growth, First Sentier Investors

You can revisit the top picks and the highlights of the panel in this wire:

Equities

The good, the bad and the ugly stocks of the ASX

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Timecodes

0:00 – Introduction

The Good

• 1:47 – Positive themes in enterprise software
• 5:58 – Dushko Bajic’s ASX tech pick and why
• 9:02 – The rotation out of financial stocks and emerging value in resources
• 11:00 James Hawkins’ value resource pick
• 13:16 – The trend towards positive cost-management practices in small and mid-caps
• 15:37 – Ben Griffiths’ top pick for cost management
• 17:15 – Defence spending as a rising growth theme
• 19:01 – Dr David Allen’s latest healthcare pick and the end to the opioid crisis

“The Bad and the Ugly”

• 23:00 – Two companies that should stick to a singular focus
• 26:50 – The challenging times for the Big Banks
• 29:00 – Concerns in the energy sector
• 31:00 – Tesla’s trials
• 32:52 – Seek’s lost decade
• 35:02 – The embattled Chinese property market and the contagion effect
• 37:00 – The Covid hangover in the Office sector and a short position

Audience questions

• 38:13 – Why First Sentier invested in Wisetech, given initial valuations
• 39:30 – James Hawkins’ thoughts on Mineral Resources
• 41:22 – The opportunity set in defence companies
• 42:16 – Ben Griffiths’ worst investment and the lessons he learnt from it.