0:02

A listener production. The

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Easter Bunny has been handing out Easter

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eggs, dividends and fresh record highs. And

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find out how the Aussie market went over

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the week, month and quarter. Good afternoon,

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I'm Steve. I'm Laura. It's Thursday

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the 28th of March. Welcome to the

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Comsec Market Update. Laura,

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happy Thursday. Happy Thursday. I

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thought you were going to say Friday. It feels like Friday, doesn't it? It does

0:26

feel like Friday for a good reason, of course.

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We've got a four-day long weekend, which means the

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Aussie market will be shut on Friday and

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also on Monday. So just a heads up, this

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is being recorded Thursday the 28th

0:38

of March, of course, which means we'll be

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back on Tuesday when the Aussie share market

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opens again. So that'll be the first

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trading day of a brand new month. And

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today is the last trading day of

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the month, isn't it? And it's a great way

0:51

to end it as well because the ASX 200 is up by around 1%. And

0:55

that's the best day in a week for the Aussie

0:58

share market. We're above 7,900 points for the first time

1:00

ever. That's

1:02

a fresh record high for the Aussie

1:04

market. And it continues this tremendous little

1:07

run that we've seen locally. It was

1:09

within the first 10 minutes of trade

1:11

today that we did crack that record high. And

1:14

then we went even higher and were able

1:16

to maintain those levels. So that's pretty impressive

1:18

that it does look like we are going

1:20

to close at that fresh record high. We're

1:23

hitting it during the session, which is what

1:25

happens sometimes, but closing there is pretty monumental,

1:27

right? And we were helped by the US

1:29

market, which rose by roughly 1% rallying

1:32

in late trade over in the United States.

1:34

And then also, of course, those softer than

1:37

expected inflation figures that we had here in

1:39

Australia just yesterday. And that keeps the Reserve

1:41

Bank contract potentially to cut interest rates a

1:43

bit later this year. But let's take a

1:45

look at the week, month and quarter because

1:47

a lot has happened, but the moves have

1:50

generally been north. Look, over the week, we're

1:52

up 1.6%. Over

1:55

the month of March, up 2.6%. Of

1:57

course, this is leading into the close, so these might not be the...

2:00

those final numbers. This marks

2:02

the fifth straight month of gains

2:04

on the Aussie market. And

2:07

in the March quarter, the Aussie market is up

2:09

around 4%. So from that low that we hit

2:13

during COVID, we're actually up about 80%. It's

2:16

remarkable isn't it when you put it that way.

2:18

In five months, that five month winning streak, our

2:20

markets rallied by about 16%. And

2:23

for that first quarter, as you rightly pointed

2:25

out, the market's up 4%. That is the

2:27

best start that we've had to a new

2:29

calendar year in five years. So

2:32

markets have certainly been heading higher. And a

2:34

lot of this has been, of course, the

2:36

attention around inflation heading in the right direction,

2:39

finds that the economy is slowing, which might

2:41

mean rate cuts. And then over in the

2:43

United States, tech stocks, some of those

2:45

big names have been the driving force behind those

2:47

improvements. Look, this week we've seen

2:49

lithium miners retracing some of their losses

2:52

that they saw over the month and

2:54

the quarter. So we're seeing Arcadium, Lithium

2:56

doing best this week, but it was

2:58

the worst over the course of the

3:00

month. In terms of sectors, so far

3:02

we're only seeing tech down over the

3:04

course of the week. But of course,

3:07

it is up over the course of the month.

3:10

Life 360 over

3:12

the month is the best performer over the

3:14

quarter. Also the best performer, and I

3:16

guess this one stands out because it did have

3:19

some solid profit results. As far

3:21

as the sectors that have done quite

3:23

nicely over the March quarter, it's many

3:25

of those interest rate sensitive areas. So

3:27

hopes of rate cuts probably helping. So

3:29

tech, up roughly 23% since the start

3:32

of this calendar year, 14% higher

3:34

for property companies, about 11%

3:36

higher for the consumer discretionary, so that all

3:39

those retailers and financials up a good 11%

3:42

as well. In March, the only sector

3:44

to actually fall back were the telcos, the

3:46

worse. They've done about 1.7% and the

3:49

property trust have been the best. So yes,

3:51

there have been some other performers, but for the

3:53

most part, this has been quite an impressive start

3:55

to a new calendar year. And I think

3:57

it's worth noting here that the... Losses

4:00

are quite small in comparison to the gains.

4:02

So we've seen tech up almost 24% over

4:04

the quarter. But

4:06

the worst performer, which has been the material

4:09

sector, that's down just eight. So

4:11

not quite as much. Today, look, the volumes

4:13

have been a little light. We're heading into that

4:15

Easter long weekend, of course. So keep in mind

4:17

that markets globally will be shut a

4:19

different time. So our market shut Friday and Monday, as

4:22

I pointed out, Europe and Hong Kong will be the

4:24

same. The US will actually only

4:26

close for one day. So I'll be

4:28

back online next Monday. And most of

4:30

Asia will be trading completely normally. And also

4:32

end of the month and quarter, which

4:34

is today for us at least. It's

4:36

a time when many fund managers, those that

4:38

are actually managing money on behalf of

4:40

their investors and clients, rebalance their portfolios

4:43

a bit. So they tidy things up,

4:45

and that can lead to more unpredictable

4:47

and choppy movements globally. But

4:49

for the most part, a very positive day. Something

4:52

that's fun for investors, perhaps, if you hold

4:54

any of these stocks, is dividend payments. And

4:56

today was one of the biggest days of

4:58

the year for dividend payments, with $11.5 billion

5:02

being paid out to eligible shareholders from some

5:04

of the biggest companies on our market. So

5:07

we actually had the biggest company, BHP, paying

5:09

out $5.5 billion alone. We

5:13

also had CBA paying out $3.6 billion. Telstra

5:16

as well was in there. So in terms

5:18

of amount per share, BHP, $1.9, CBA, $2.15,

5:20

Telstra, $0.09 per share. A

5:25

few other companies paying out today, Beach

5:28

Energy, Origin, Northern Star, Universal Store, the

5:30

Lottery Corp, Newmont. Of course, yesterday

5:32

was a massive day as well. We had $7 billion

5:35

being paid out from pretty big

5:37

companies as well, Fortescue, Santos, Westphimers.

5:39

Tomorrow, going to be much smaller,

5:42

just $10 million being paid out,

5:44

or just, but much smaller in

5:46

comparison. Credit Corp is the

5:48

one to note there. Next week, $4

5:50

billion over the course of the whole week. So it's getting

5:53

smaller from here. Next week was definitely the biggest week for

5:55

payments. Absolutely. Before we look at

5:57

today's move, sectors and stocks briefly, Craig James, our

5:59

Chief Economist. did some digging around

6:01

and it was quite interesting to see

6:03

the percentage of customers that

6:05

are getting paid dividends that are reinvesting their

6:07

dividends rather than actually cashing in the cheque.

6:09

So roughly about 10% an estimated

6:13

number are actually reinvesting their dividends. So

6:15

less than many people would have thought

6:17

most are actually getting the money paid

6:19

to them. So maybe that leads us

6:21

into retail spending because we've had some

6:23

data today on this showing that spending

6:26

rose a little in the month of

6:28

February, a third of a percent, a

6:30

touch below expectations and Taylor Swift found

6:32

a way to mention her again. Hey

6:34

Tay, the seven concerts in Sydney and

6:37

Melbourne actually boosted spending on things like

6:39

clothing and dining out and accommodation as

6:41

well. That's obviously just a temporary lift

6:43

though so it does show that spending

6:45

is still quite weak at the moment.

6:48

Across the sectors we're seeing all of the

6:50

11 up. In fact eight of the 11

6:52

are up close to or above 1% so

6:55

materials are up 1.9% that's really

6:57

helping our market property up 1.7%

6:59

so some

7:01

pretty strong gains there. Looking at specific

7:04

stocks today, Remilius is up a good 2.2%

7:06

it said it's walking away from a potential

7:08

takeover of a Canadian miner. This is following

7:10

a period of due diligence and shares in

7:13

the stock are higher on the news. It

7:15

happens sometimes when a company decides to abandon

7:17

a takeover because it means they've carried out

7:19

due diligence, they're saving some money, they're not

7:22

taking on additional debt to make that acquisition

7:24

for the stock up today. Medical

7:26

device company Fisher and Payacool have been

7:28

the worst performer for most of the

7:30

day so they announced a voluntary recall

7:32

of some of its oxygen flow devices

7:34

that were manufactured before August 2017 so

7:37

apparently there was a speaker configuration issue that

7:40

could make it hard to hear an alarm

7:42

if it did sound so nothing wrong with

7:44

the function of the device itself which is

7:46

good but not so good for a share

7:49

price it could also cost the company around

7:51

12 million dollars. Speech energy is up 3.7% at the moment

7:54

it's cutting 30% of its

7:56

workforce as part of a restructure under

7:58

leadership of a new CEO flagged

8:01

this turnaround plant last month and beach

8:03

supplies roughly 12% of

8:05

gas requirements on Australia's east coast. Now,

8:08

let's look ahead to next week. So, of

8:10

course, it's going to be two holiday short

8:12

and week. We have Friday off and Monday

8:14

off, just reiterating that. It's going to

8:16

be a little bit quieter. It will be quieter tonight

8:18

as well. Just a heads up Thursday night

8:20

economic growth in the United States and Friday

8:22

night too. There will be some inflation stats

8:24

out of the United States. What

8:27

will you be looking at next week? Do you think as far as

8:29

the highlight might be concerned? There's going

8:31

to be a few speeches from

8:33

RBA officials. We get the RBA

8:35

board meeting minutes on Tuesday and

8:37

international trade numbers here in Australia

8:39

on Thursday. We've got a

8:41

week left until daylight saving comes to an end.

8:44

Wow. We took a fair time for many. But anyway,

8:46

have a great one, Laura. You too, everyone. Happy

8:48

Easter and we'll see you again first thing Tuesday

8:50

morning. Bye. This

8:57

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