While the market remained relatively flat this week, Wesfarmers’ share price saw a spike of 7% following the decision to dump supermarket chain Coles.
Canstar’s General Manager of Wealth Josh Callaghan said Wesfarmers’ decision to split out Coles as its own business was big news for the Australian share market last week.
“As a standalone organisation, Coles will still be in the ASX’s top-30 with a market cap of circa $20 billion of the $47 billion market cap of Wesfarmers,” he explained.
The resources sector also experienced significant growth this past week, with metals and mining company Syrah Resources up 17.7%, mining company Galaxy Resources’ share price up 16.5% and lithium producer Pilbara Minerals up 7.5%.
Mr Callaghan said local market movements over the past week could mostly be attributed to what is going on in the United States.
“Most of the action on the market last week was related to the US with the talk of trade wars continuing, Trump’s rotating door of senior advisors and the Aussie dollar copping a strong sell-off in the latter half of the week,” he said.
“This week the local market will continue to look to the US for guidance on where to go with a close eye on the Aussie dollar against the greenback.”
Top 5 Winners and Losers of the ASX200 (09/03/2018 to 19/03/2018) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Winners | Losers | ||||
Rank | Change (%) | Rank | Change (%) | ||
1 | Syrah Resources Ltd (SYR) | 17.7% | 1 | Retail Food Group (RFG) | -11.0% |
2 | Galaxy Resources Limited (GXY) | 16.5% | 2 | Newcrest Mining Limited (NCM) | -8.6% |
3 | Premier Investments Limited (PMV) | 11.1% | 3 | APN Outdoor Group Ltd (APO) | -6.3% |
4 | Pilbara Minerals Ltd (PLS) | 7.5% | 4 | Spark New Zealand Ltd (SPK) | -6.2% |
5 | Wesfarmers Ltd (WES) | 7.0% | 5 | Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australian (GMA) | -5.1% |
Source: Canstar Research, March 9, 2018 Data source: Market Index |
The Retail Food Group experienced another terrible week on the market, falling by 11% last week.
“Just when we thought we’d seen the last of the Retail Food Group selloff, their price took another dive last week,” said Mr Callaghan.
“It seems that some shareholders may have been waiting out for a positive adjustment but decided it may be better to cut and run.”
Newcrest Mining also saw its share price sink after having to suspend all mining and processing operations due to cracks in a dam wall at its Cadia gold mine.
Try our Online Share Trading comparison tool to instantly compare Canstar expert rated options.
All information about performance returns is historical. Past performance should not be relied upon as an indicator of future performance; unit prices and the value of your investment may fall or rise.
Any advice provided on this website is general and has not taken into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Consider whether this advice is right for you. Consider the Product Disclosure Statement and Target Market Determination before making a purchase decision. Canstar provides an information service. It is not a credit provider, and in giving you information about credit products Canstar is not making any suggestion or recommendation to you about a particular credit product. Research provided by Canstar Research AFSL and Australian Credit Licence No. 437917. You must not reproduce, transmit, disseminate, sell, or publish information on this website without prior written permission from Canstar.