ASX200 loses nearly 1 per cent, in second-last day of trading for the year
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Australia's share market is limping towards the finish line, losing nearly 1 per cent in value in the penultimate day of trading for the year.
Mining, energy, and banking stocks weighed heavily today, with almost all sectors losing value.
Disclaimer: this blog is not intended as investment advice.
By Gareth Hutchens
Thanks for having me today.
I'll be here tomorrow for the final day of trading for the year, so see you then.
By Gareth Hutchens
The ASX200 has finished on 7,020.10 points, down 0.94 per cent.
A week ago, the index was sitting on 7,024.3 points – so the last week of trading for the year disappointed.
Some of the losses today:
All of the banks lost value:
Meanwhile, Japan's and Hong Kong's stock markets are trading lower.
As on 5pm AEDT, the Nikkei 225 and the Hang Seng are both down by a little over 1 per cent.
US stock markets closed yesterday's trading down, so we'll see what happens there overnight.
By Gareth Hutchens
Here are today's top 10 and bottom 10 individual performers.
By Gareth Hutchens
As the day's trades are getting settled in Australia, let's see where things stand in the region:
By Gareth Hutchens
With trading done for the day, it looks like the ASX200 has lost 0.98 per cent in value, ending the day on 7,020 points.
It began the day with 7,086.4 points, and at one point, around 2pm, it touched 6,994 points – its lowest level in seven weeks.
But for the last two hours of trading it had a small rally, getting the index back above the 7,000 points level. But it wasn't enough to drag the index into positive territory, so it ended up closing 60 points lower than yesterday's close.
By Gareth Hutchens
Here is a link to information about the Australia-India trade agreement.
The agreement was signed on 2 April, 2022, by then Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan.
It means:
By Gareth Hutchens
Let's take another look at the sector summary, as of 3.50pm AEDT.
The energy sector is the worst performer today, followed by utilities and real estate.
But academic and educational services have bucked the trend. It's up 1.04 per cent.
That coincides with the fact that the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) came into force today.
The Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA), which represents the interests of skills training and higher education providers, sent out a press release earlier today noting the event.
"There are strong economic and societal benefits for Australia through improved access to the adult Indian education sector, and ITECA members look forward to developing the collaborative relationships in India to bring these to fruition,” ITECA's chief executive Troy Williams said.
India is the largest source of enrolments for independent skills training providers, and independent higher education providers, in Australia.
By Gareth Hutchens
Earlier today, I mentioned that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appeared on Channel 7's Sunrise program this morning.
When he was on the program, he dismissed reporting by The Australian newspaper that his government may end up having to pay mining companies and power generators hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for the anticipated losses incurred by its year-long price cap on domestic coal next year.
According to the paper, nearly $450 million alone could go to Queensland's Gladstone Power Station – which is partially owned by Rio Tinto.
Albanese said this morning: "I have no idea where that figure came from."
But now The Australian is reporting that Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has confirmed that that ballpark figure of $450 million for the Gladstone power station was worked out before the deal went through.
"All of that was worked out when we reached the agreement we reached," she reportedly said.
By Gareth Hutchens
CommSec chief economist Craig James spoke to Sue Lannin about the outlook for the global economy and markets next year.
He notes that even though Australia's stock market has endured its worst year since 2011, it's done much better than major stock markets in the US.
By Gareth Hutchens
Other major stock markets in Asia are performing poorly today, as of 3.05pm AEDT:
By Gareth Hutchens
This piece from Charlie Warzel in the Atlantic is interesting.
He says he can't stop thinking about "Exhibit H", which was filed in a recent court case in the US.
The document contains private text messages between Elon Musk and his friends, revealing how some of the world's richest people spoke about Twitter's takeover.
Warzel writes: "Armed with three months of hindsight, I’ve begun to think of Exhibit H as a skeleton key for the final, halcyon days of the tech boom—unlocking an understanding of the cultural brain worms and low-interest-rate hubris that defined the industry in 2022."
By Gareth Hutchens
The ASX200 is made up of the 200 largest companies on the stock exchange, by market capitalisation.
And the ASX20 comprises the 20 largest companies.
The top 20 is dominated by major banks, big miners, energy groups, gambling empires, and supermarket giants.
They're so big that they can shift Australia's entire stock market, and that's what we're seeing today.
Every company (except for 1) in the top 20 has lost value today, as of 1.55pm AEDT.
Woodside Energy and Santos are both down by roughly 4 per cent, all of the banks have been hit, and BHP has shed nearly 2 per cent in value.
By Gareth Hutchens
The market is continuing to lose value.
As of 1.15pm (AEDT) the index has now fallen below the 7,000 points level, where it's trading around 6,998 points.
The last time it was this low was in early November.
By Gareth Hutchens
The market is trading 1.2 per cent lower after nearly 3 hours of trading.
But let's zoom out a bit.
This is how the ASX200 has tracked over the last six months.
It hit its recent peak at the beginning of December, but it's been losing value for the last four weeks.
It's now testing the 7,000 points level.
By Gareth Hutchens
Australia is one of the world's largest sources of lithium, with the bulk of the lithium deposits sitting in Western Australia.
In 2021, we accounted for 46 per cent of the world's lithium production and were the largest lithium exporter in the world.
Our export revenue for lithium exports is expected to triple in 2022/23.
However, even though Australia's great at exporting raw materials to the rest of the world, it's not so great when it comes to adding value to lithium products further up the supply chain.
The vast majority of the value in the global lithium supply chain is created in the production and manufacture of battery cells, and that end of the supply chain is dominated by countries like China and Japan.
The race is on globally to try to break into the different segments of that supply chain, and Australia is on the back foot.
This image shows the companies with operations in Australia that have a foot-hold in each segment of the global supply chain.
The least profitable segment is on the left – that's where Australia dominates.
By Gareth Hutchens
And while we're on lithium, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources publishes a very useful paper every quarter that gives an update on the state of Australia's extraction industries.
It's called the "Resources and Energy Quarterly," and the December quarter edition was published this month.
It has updated forecasts of global lithium demand and production, electric vehicle sales and the battery supply chain.
When you look at the projections for sales of electric vehicles, you can see why car manufacturers are piling into the sector.
We're in 2022. Look where they think things will be in 2030.
By Gareth Hutchens
It also looks like lithium stocks are taking a breather after yesterday's losses.
Three of the top five best-performing stocks today are lithium stocks (as at 12:06 AEDT):
By Gareth Hutchens
The worst performing stocks in today's session as at 11.58 AEDT:
By Gareth Hutchens
Here's how the different sectors are going this morning.
By Gareth Hutchens
The ASX200 has lost 0.8 per cent in value in the first hour of trading today.
If you're wondering, the "ASX200" is the shorthand name of Australia's public stock exchange.
It's an index of the 200 largest companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) by market-capitalisation.
Together, the 200 companies account for around 82 per cent of Australia's entire share market capitalisation.
The index closed yesterday on 7,086.4 points, and this morning it's slipped to 7,030.3 points (down 0.8 per cent).
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