The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is expected to sustain its record momentum in December.
One analyst says the very near-term outlook for equity markets is a positive one as investors price in the aspiration of a new administration in the US at the same time interest rates continue to come down.
US markets are in favour of some of US President-elect Donald Trump’s policies including a proposal to cut taxes and ease the regulatory burden on businesses.
Meanwhile, Australian investors will be watching the retail sales figures released later today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as well as waiting to see what the Reserve Bank of Australia does when it meets next Tuesday 10 December.
There is very little chance of a rate cut being announced at the next meeting with the RBA Rate Indicator showing just a 3% expectation of a decrease to 4.10%.
The RBA Rate Indicator, which as of 29 November 2024 was trading at 96.665, shows market expectations of a change in the official cash rate.
The indicator calculates a percentage probability of an RBA interest rate change based on the market determined prices in the ASX 30 Day Interbank Cash Rate Futures.
The S&P/ASX200 advanced marginally by 5.10 points to 8,441.30 points at 10.32am AEDT. Over the last five days, the index has gained 0.57% and is currently 0.42% off of its 52-week high.
Nine of 11 sectors are higher on Monday (2 December) led by the information technology sector, which moved up 0.14% in early trade and is up 3.30% for the past five days. Industrials was up 0.09% and energy shifted up 0.02%.
The gold explorers dominated the movers today. De Grey Mining (ASX:DEG) gained 27.30% to $1.94, Gold Road Resources (ASX:GOR) climbed 8.31% to $2.02 and Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) shifted up 2.73% to $1.32.
On the flip side, Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) slid 4.40% to $16.74 and Newmont (ASX:NEM) dipped 1.51% to $64.11.
Meanwhile, the iron ore price continues to climb to US$102.44 ($157.56) a tonne on increased expectations of further fiscal stimulus in response to Trump’s proposed tariffs on Chinese imports into the US.
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 & Stock
