Banks, tech stocks help Australian find ground; Woodside slumps nearly 4%

Beach Energy

23/07/2024 07:52

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      ASX 200 snaps 3-day losing streak
    

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      Woodside falls on project's profitability worries
    

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      NZ50 ends at over 2-year high
    

  
 (Updates to close)
    By Sameer Manekar
       July 23 (Reuters) - Australian shares regained their
footing on Tuesday after losing for three consecutive sessions,
helped by a broad-based rally across most sectors including
banks and technology, while Woodside Energy slumped nearly 4% on
concerns around its latest acquisition.
    The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index  .AXJO  ended 0.5% higher at
7,971.1 points, roughly 110 points below its all-time high of
8,083.70 points scaled last week.
    Financial stocks rebounded after three days of sharp losses
as investors assessed the increasing likelihood of a rate hike
by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
    A mixed jobs data report last week and still above-target
inflation have raised the chances of a RBA rate hike in early
August. Markets now expect a near 20% chance of a hike from 12%
early last week.  0#RBAWATCH 
    Investors now await Australia's quarterly inflation print,
due on July 31, for cues on the central bank's monetary policy
trajectory.
    Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone,
said a big inflation number will mean the next meeting will be a
"live" one and could either result in a rate hike or pause.
    While in theory, high rates are good for banks, at the same
time it means "credit demand is going to get whacked," which
could cool demand sufficiently but also "raises the possibility
of a policy mistake in Australia", Weston added.
        The tech index  .AXIJ  jumped 1.6%, tracking Wall Street
peers as investors rotated back to mega-cap growth stocks. Top
gainers Iress  IRE.AX  and WiseTech Global  WTC.AX  added
roughly 2%.
    Woodside Energy shares  WDS.AX  declined nearly 4% despite
reporting an uptick in quarterly revenue as cost overruns at
Scarborough project and concerns of profitability of its
recently-acquired Driftwood LNG project weighed on sentiment.
    This pulled down the energy index  .AXEJ , which lost 2%.
    Elsewhere, the banking index  .AXFJ  added 0.8%, with all
the "Big Four" banks gaining 0.8%-1.2%. 
    In New Zealand, consumer and technology firms lifted the
benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index  .NZ50  0.9% to 12,425.58 points, its
highest level since February 2022.
    

 (Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; additional reporting
by Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
 ((Sameer.Manekar@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/sameer_manekar))
 
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