ASX 200 market wrap: record high week with CSL, CommBank & Telstra among winning stocks

Australia’s stock market ended at a record high last week, achieving a new peak of more than 6,900 points.

Calmer international relations by the end of last week, a buoyant market in the United States and some positive news on the domestic front – with the biggest jump in retail sales in two years – spurred on investors. Australia’s biggest companies CSL and the Commonwealth Bank recorded gains. Lithium miner Orocobre Limited jumped more than 20%. But gold company Resolute Mining did not fare so well, dropping more than 14%. Big names Qantas and Fortescue Metals also declined.

Markets will look to housing, tourism data and the US Beige Book

The ASX opened slightly lower on Monday to follow a lower US market, as anticipated.

Last week shareholders and investors bought into the Australian market, pushing the ASX 200 to a record high of 6,929 points. This was a gain of 2.91% for the first full trading week of the year.

The wider All Ordinaries also reached an unprecedented high of more than 7,000 points to end the week up 2.73% at 7,042.

This week, investors will be watching Australian data releases across housing, tourism, credit and consumer confidence.

Internationally, Chinese trade and GDP figures are set to be released. In the US, one of the key economic data sets used by the Federal Reserve central bank, the Beige Book, will be released on Wednesday.

Australia’s biggest companies got bigger and grew market overall last week

Gains were made across the market, but the dominance of CSL, Australia’s biggest healthcare company and the second-biggest company on the ASX by market value, brought up the health sector 6.49%.

Investors bought into Telstra shares to push its price up 6.9% overall and grow the telecommunications sector up 6.03%.

Consumer discretionary stocks also increased significantly in value, up 4.08%. Consumer staples (up 3.79%), IT shares (up 3.72%), and energy shares (up 3.26%) also outperformed the wider market.

According to CommSec, more than 70% of the top 200 companies grew in value over the week. In addition to Telstra and CSL, other significant gains that brought up the market included Wesfarmers (4.8%) and BHP Group (up 1.7%).

But amid calm international markets at the end of the week – following initial jitters over the Iran strike on US positions in the Middle East – safe haven gold miner Northern Star lost 3.8%. US-based medical device company Resmed shed 3.7% and Qantas also slipped back 2.4%.

Lithium miner jumps and CSL reaches record high

Despite not issuing any news, lithium miner Orocobre Limited’s share price shot up 20.3% last week. It and some other lithium miners, including Pilbara Minerals Limited (up 10.3%), may have benefited from a perceived increase in potential demand as other global companies are blocked from mining in some countries.

Telecommunications company Vocus Group’s shares rose amid a notice from the company one of its directors would increase his personal shareholding by about $500,000. The market responded positively, pushing up the price 11.1% to $3.21 a share.

Vaccine producer CSL also increased its price another 7.6% to $299.14 after positive positions from a broker and a reported early start to the US flu season. According to investment advice company the Motley Fool, CSL’s shares bounced off the back of a positive broker note from Credit Suisse that said demand would remain strong for CSL’s immunoglobulins products. This is a record price for the health company, which now has an overall market capitalisation of $9.6 billion.

‘Safe havens’ not so safe

Gold miner Resolute Mining also felt the impact of last week’s international events. When investors no longer sense bad news, they no longer flock to gold. This was likely a contributing factor in driving Resolute shares down 14.4%. Similar resources companies Silver Lake Resources (down 6.9%), and Regis Resources (down 5%) also appeared to bear the brunt of this phenomenon.

Investors opted out of leisure park and retirement village operator Ingenia Group (down 5.8%). It announced it expected the disastrous bushfires near Lake Conjola, on the South Coast of NSW, would cost the company “at least” $2 million.

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