ASX slides down on second consecutive day
It was two paced day on the ASX, with shares facing China mostly falling, while consumer discretionary and US facing stocks traded higher.
The underwhelming stimulus package from Beijing announced on Friday continued to hamper the resource and energy sector, which dragged the ASX as a whole lower.
The benchmark ASX 200 index fell by 10.60 points, or 0.13 per cent, to finish the session at 8255.60 points.
The broader All Ordinaries traded slightly down, falling 3.70 points 0.04 per cent, to close at 8515.20 points.
The Australian dollar fell by 0.35 per cent to 65.53 US cents.
Camera IconASX falls overall despite 7 of the 11 sectors trading positively. NewsWire / Jeremy Piper Credit: News Corp Australia
On Wall Street, Dow Jones closed above 44,000 points for the first time while the S & P 500 and the tech heavy Nasdaq indexes closed flat.
During Tuesday’s trading on the ASX, seven of the 11 sectors ended higher despite the decline in the S & P/ASX 200 Index.
Afterpay owner Block was the top performer across the ASX 200 climbing 10.7 per cent to $126.40 following a bullish analyst note by Piper Sandler’s senior research analyst Arvind Ramnani.
Commenting on market results released by the dual-listed company on Friday, Mr Rammani lifted the target price for Block following “a robust track record” of innovation.
“We believe that Block should benefit from a continued secular shift to electronic payments, as well as being on the forefront of innovation, organised around its two business segments, which are centred around merchants/sellers (Square) and consumers (Cash App),” the analysts said.
The price of Block shares were also well supported by the bitcoin rally, which is up 16 per cent over the last five days to over $US88,400, thanks to President-elect Donald Trump’s stance on cryptocurrencies.
As of September 2024 the company owned 8,211 BTC.
Shares in rival buy now pay later company Zip were also one of the better performing stocks, up 4.5 per cent to $3.50
“Zip earns a good chunk of its money in the US. It has had a great run and is earning good money in the US which is jugging along nicely, which will only get better if Donald Trump can get through the tax cuts, it’s going to be a good story for Zip,” IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said.
Mr Sycamore said there were good signs for business and consumer confidence, both continuing to climb, albeit from lower levels, which helped drive consumer discretionary shares.
Consumer facing stocks surged led by Cettire which skyrocketed 7.46 per cent to $1.60, Temple and Webster gained 4.43 per cent to $11.55, and Adairs climbed 3.92 per cent to $2.65.
Camera IconBlock, Zip and consumer discretionary shares are among the strongest during Tuesday’s trading. NewsWire / Jeremy Piper Credit: News Corp Australia
On the other side, resource and energy shares were among the biggest fallers due to an underwhelming Chinese stimulus package.
BHP retreated 1.75 per cent to $40.90, Rio Tinto dropped 1.62 per cent to $117.54 and South32 fell 2.43 per cent to $3.64.
The weakest performing shares were in the Uranium sector, following a market update by Paladin Energy.
“It was a very poor day from the uranium sector following a production update from Paladin Energy which has underwhelmed the market,” Mr Sycamore said.
“I find it interesting that after Paladin Energy came out saying its production won’t be as high, if we think the market is tight and there is demand coming that should actually be supportive for the other miners, but they have been caught up in the wash up.”
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