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Highlights:
- ASX200 closes Tuesday’s trade slightly higher, pushed by healthcare and consumer staple stocks.
- Zip and Sezzle merger termination remained the highlight of today’s (12 July) trade on ASX.
- Global recession fears and inflation seems to be affecting the domestic and other economies.
Australian stocks closed slightly higher today, up just 4.10 points to 6,606.30. Tuesday’s trade partly recouped Monday’s losses with gains among Health Care, Consumer Staples, Utilities and Financials. Meanwhile, materials stocks continued to slide further. Even Telecom and IT stocks were looming lower. In last five days, the Australian index has lost 0.35%, down about 9.92% over the last 52 weeks.
Meanwhile, Westpac Melbourne Institute’s consumer sentiment index data was released today. The index showed a 3% decline in the consumer sentiment in July over last month, marking its seventh consecutive monthly fall. The main causes highlighted were increasing interest rates and surging inflation.
Other noteworthy trends
While Australian shares were edging slightly higher, Volatility indicator - A-VIX index gained 1.56%. However, the All-ordinaries index lost 0.08%. Large cap representative, ASX50 index (XFL) firmed up 0.301%. Meanwhile, mid-cap index ASX Midcap 50 and small-cap index ASX small ordinaries closed trade lower.
Top gainers and losers on ASX 200
Image Source © 2022 Kalkine Media ®, data source- ASX website
Market movers
- Making headlines today were two fintech firms on a terminated merger deal. Shares in Zip Co (ASX:ZIP) closed trade 6% higher after announcing termination of its merger with Sezzle. As a result, Sezzle (ASX:SZL) shares lost more than 38%. Zip Co will be paying Sezzle AU$16.3 million to cover costs associated with the deal.
- Eagers Automotive (ASX:APE) announced that its first-half profit might exceed guidance. Based on the news, APE share price managed to gain 3.31% during trade hours. Eagers stated that its statutory net profit through June was to beat its earlier forecast made in May. An improved outlook was shared despite the continuing supply constraints on new cars delivered.
- Another market mover was Costa Group (ASX:CGC) which closed 1.89% down after a volatile session. The food retailer responded to an ASX price query today after seeing elevated trading volumes on Monday.
- From the top gainer health care sector, CSL (ASX:CSL) gained 1.63%. Following along were other health care biggies Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (ASX:FPH) up 0.96% and Resmed Inc (ASX:RMD) gaining 2.08%.
In global markets:
Globally, investors seem to be keenly looking for more cues on US Fed’s interest rate hikes. Even in Europe the fight against inflation appears to be the current priority and a key market influencer. In Asia, stocks were losing as Japanese Nikkei fell along with South Korean KOSPI. With China detecting a new variant of omicron and possibilities of new round of lockdowns, China’s Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Component closed lower. Even Hong Kong based Hang Seng index ended the session lower.
On commodities front,
- Oil prices were down as demand concerns were aggravated by the Chinese discovery of another omicron sub-variant. Oil benchmarks Brent and WTI retreated. Growing fears of a recession also continued to influence demand.
- Gold prices were slightly higher on Tuesday while US dollar continued to soar to a two-decade high. However, other precious metals including silver, platinum and palladium were eased.
- A glum global investor sentiment and monetary tightening measures have not even spared cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin.
