ASX 200 ends lower; IT, Healthcare lead losses, Energy bucks trend

Highlights:

• The S&P/ASX 200 closed lower on Tuesday (19 July 2022), shedding 0.56% to 6,649.60.
• The benchmark index has gained 0.66% in last five trading days but is down 10.68% on year-to-date basis.
• Market breadth was broadly in favour of losers; 9 of 11 sectors closed lower today.

Australian share market ended lower today with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 shedding 0.56% or 37.50 points at 6,649.60. Australian shares opened on a flat-to-negative note taking negative cues from Wall Street, and remained range-bound during the first-half of the trading session. However, in the second-half, indices extended losses as more sectors witnessed selling pressure following the release of minutes of the last RBA meeting.  

Key pointers from ASX close today

• The ASX 200 benchmark index closed lower on Tuesday.
• Bottom performing stocks in this index were Xero Limited and Pointsbet Holdings Limited, down 6.02% and 5.99% respectively.
• Top performing stocks featured Pendal Group, Mesoblast Limited and Whitehaven Coal Limited ending 7.78%, 7.6% and 5.0% higher respectively.
• In last five trading sessions, the benchmark index has gained 0.66%, but is down 10.68% on year-to-date basis.
• Most of the sectors ended with losses; 9 of 11 ASX sectors succumbed to selling pressure.
• Energy was the best performing sector, gaining 2.37%. The sector has gained 3.97% in last five trading days.
• Information Technology closed 2.73% lower followed by Healthcare that ended today’s session 2.46% down.

News Makers

• Pendal Group Limited (ASX:PDL): The stock ended 7.78% higher at AU$4.430 per share. The investment management company confirmed that it is in talks with Perpetual for a potential transaction.
• Ampol Limited (ASX:ALD): The stock was a tad down at AU$31.980 towards the closing today. The company posted that refining margin at its Lytton plant in Brisbane went up to US$36.96 per barrel in April-June against US$10.59 per barrel in the March quarter.
• Hub24 Limited (ASX:HUB): The stock was 5.522% lower at AU22.410 at 3:48 PM AEST. The firm announced record quarterly net inflows of AU$11.7 billion.

Bond yields

Yields on Aussie bonds gained after Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor stated that Australians are well-positioned to manage rising interest rates.  

Australia 10-year bond yield stood at 3.539% at 3:45 PM AEST.

In global markets:

Wall Street closed lower on Monday after majority of significant stocks incurred losses. Bank shares along with stocks like Apple, Goldman Sachs, Google, IBM, turned lower.  Dow Jones fell 0.69%, Nasdaq Composite slid 0.81%.

The US markets are watching out for the earnings season and big companies like Goldman Sachs and Apple have already warned last night that they may slowdown hiring and other expenditure as the outlook towards economy is worsening.

Share market in Asia also fell on Tuesday, 19 July 2022 after previous day’s declines on Wall Street. Investors are eyeing upcoming central banks meetings and the preliminary stages of the US earnings season.

The European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of Japan (BOJ) will be holding meetings on Thursday, and it is expected that the ECB can increase rates with 25 basis points. However, BOJ is less likely to make any change in the rates.

This week is anticipated to be a vital one for the European markets as the countries are worried about the impact of war and sanctions on gas supplies. Russia is expected to restart operations on Nord Stream 1, the natural gas pipeline to Germany.

In Commodities markets:

Prices in oil have eased up a bit after surging more than US$5/bbl yesterday. Rising oil prices are likely to add up to the demand-killing economic slump and the current stiffness in the supply-demand imbalance.

US President Joe Biden had visited UAE to strike conversation regarding raising oil production to curb fuel prices. But there is no report of any kind of output increase so far from the OPEC.

Also, a weaker US dollar is aiding upbeat sentiment to the market.

Meanwhile, Crude Oil WTI was spotted at US$99.25/bbl at 3:59 PM AEST while Brent Oil was at US$106.07/bbl at 3:40 PM AEST.

Gold was at US$1707.75 an ounce at 3:40 PM AEST.