ASX 200: Afterpay, CBA up as NAB, Westpac, ANZ slip

Australia’s biggest publicly traded companies grew in value last week for the fifth week out of the past six. The two biggest companies by market value, CSL and the Commonwealth Bank, brought up the market. Skills and training company G8 Education weighed on it. This is a wrap of the ASX trading week.

Sentiment was positive on the Australian Securities Exchange last week, pushing the overall value of the top 200 businesses up 1.04% to 6,794 points.

IT stocks had the biggest gains – for the second week in a row – up 5.9%. This was led by buy-now, pay-later company Afterpay (APT). Health stocks were up overall by 4.34%, with biotech giant CSL among those leading the charge (up 5.1%). Consumer staples were also popular increasing by 3.63%, with supermarket giant Woolworths (WOW), up 3.4%.

The financial sector and materials were out of favour, however, and fell 0.87% and 0.11%, respectively.

Annual general meetings continue to shed more light on company books. Wesfarmers reported earnings growth in Bunnings and Officeworks and its share price ended the week up by 2.9%.

Many companies also paid out dividends to shareholders last week, including the big banks National Australia Bank (NAB), ANZ Banking Group (ANZ), Macquarie Group (MCG) and Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC).

Mining company BHP announced Mike Henry would take over as Chief Executive Officer from January 1, 2020 following  the retirement of Andrew Mackenzie.

In the week ahead, Australia’s Reserve Bank and the US Federal Reserve will both release minutes from their recent board meetings, giving an indication of their views of the trading conditions to come.

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Afterpay continues its rise, Bingo and Graincorp grow on results

Fintech company Afterpay Touch (APT) recorded the biggest gain of the week, finishing up by 22% to $32.91 a share. Investors wanted in after a broker upgrade and positive announcements at its AGM on Wednesday. It says it will be available on shopping platform eBay next year, and now has more than 2.6 million customers in the US and 400 million in the US.

Shares in waste management company Bingo Industries Ltd (BIN) jumped 18.1% in the week, after it was announced at its AGM that it could increase profits by about 50%.

Agricultural business Graincorp (GNC) also held its AGM, but reported a drought-affected underlying loss of $82m, in line with earlier guidance. But investors bought into the company as the competition watchdog, the ACCC, announced it would not stand in the way of the purchase of its GrainCorp Bulk Liquid Terminals. It was up 14.6% in the week.

Tech companies Nearmap Ltd (NEA) and Appen Ltd (APX) also rose by double-digits (17.1% and 12.6%) after positive broker recommendations.

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