With the Australian Government set to hand down its budget tomorrow (25 March), investors are starting the week largely on the sidelines.
The S&P/ASX 200 dipped 21.9 points, or 0.28%, to 7,909.3 points by 10.30am AEDT today (24 March). The index has gained 1.54% over the past five days, but is down 3.06% for the last year to date.
This also follows a soft trading session in the US last Friday (21 March) on the back of Federal Reserve comments that policymakers expect the inflation impact of tariffs to be transitory.
According to Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee, US’ goods imports are just 11% of GDP.
ANZ Economist Madeline Dunk says this means one-off tariffs that are not followed by retaliation and that do not spill over will likely have a transitory impact on inflation.
“If that is the case, the monetary policy can look through them,” she says.
Meanwhile, in Australia the expectation is that Treasurer Jim Chalmers will announce a $20 billion cash deficit for the 2025 financial year, with the following fiscal year to see that widen to over $40 billion.
Nine of the 11 sectors of the S&P/ASX 200 were lower just after the opening bell. Materials slid 0.87%, industrials was down 0.27% and energy edged back 0.09%.
The financial sector was the best performing, advancing 0.17% in early trade and up 2.39% over the past five days.
Gold miner Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) retreated 6.42% to $1.24, while coal producer New Hope (ASX:NHC) gave back some of the gains it accumulated last week to trade down 6.33% at $3.85.
New York-headquartered investment firm VanEck Associates sold down its stake in Bellevue to 7.59%, from 9.06% previously.
The S&P/ASX200 is Australia’s leading share market index and contains the top 200 ASX-listed companies in terms of market capitalisation, and accounts for about 80% of the country’s equity market. The index is designed to measure the performance of the 200 largest index-eligible stocks listed on the ASX by float-adjusted market capitalisation.
It is recognised as the institutional investable benchmark in the country.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: ASX & AAP
