BPO TV

The local market managed to gain 0.4% yesterday, regaining some ground after Tuesday’s interest rate rise slump.

The market was up nearly 1% at one point, supported by tech, mining and oil stocks, however, ran out of stream by the session close, as all of the big banks raised their mortgage interest rates in line with the RBA, so the financials sector was the only sector to post a loss, down 2.9%.

Looking at the ASX200 leaderboard, private toll road developer and operator, Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX) jumped 16% as news came in that IFM had snapped up a 15% holding in the company, and that the infrastructure fund might put forward a takeover bid in the future. This comes amid hot competition for long-term infrastructure assets. Also performing well was Boral (ASX:BLD), up 15% after the building products company announced it had appointed its new CEO. Meanwhile, banking stocks tumbled. Bendigo & Adelaide Bank (ASX:BEN), Westpac (ASX:WBC) and Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) fell the most, all down over 4%, likely driven by concerns that an aggressive tightening cycle by the RBA could create challenges for the banking sector.

We saw both Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) and Westpac (ASX:ABC) at the top of the most traded stocks by Bell Direct clients yesterday. Also highly traded was the BetaShares Geared Australian Equity Hedge Fund ETF (ASX:GEAR), Woodside Energy Group (ASX:WDS) and Pacific Smiles Group (ASX:PSQ).

Over in the US, all three benchmarks were in the red. The Dow Jones down 0.8%, the S&P500 down 1.1% and the Nasdaq down 0.7%. This comes as investors monitor signs of a potential economic slowdown. Also, action in the bond market may have hurt investor sentiment, as the 10-year Treasury yield jumped back above 3%.

What to watch today:

• Our local market is set to fall 0.76% this morning if you go by the SPI futures.
• Keep an eye on BHP Group (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), as both of its US-listed shares tumbled overnight. So, today could be a tough day for the mining sector.
• In commodities:
  • Oil jumped to a 13-week high on rising US gasoline demand. The WTI crude oil price is up 2.5% to US$122 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price is up 2.7% to US$124 a barrel.
  • The gold price strengthened as worries over economic growth boosted the safe-haven’s appeal, ahead of the US inflation data due out on Friday.
  • The spot iron ore price is trading 1% higher at US$146 a tonne.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter have maintained its Hold rating on Platinum Asset Management (ASX:PTM) with a price target of $1.70. While May’s funds under management or FUM figures were not bad, Bell Potter find that there is still little to be positive about. FUM has fallen 16.6% year to date, and at this stage Bell Potter expects average FUM for the year ending June 2022 to be $21.5b, which is 7.4% lower than 2021. At its current share price of $1.74, this implies -2% share price growth in a year.
• Trading Central has a bullish signal on TPG Telecom (ASX:TPG) indicating that the stock price may rise from the close of $6.07 to the range of $6.80 - $7.00 in the next 94 days according to standard principals of technical analysis.