• ASX closed lower on the last trading day of 2023
  • Resource stocks led the selloff
  • Eagers Automotive announced a cyber incident

 

The ASX closed the last trading day of the year on a low note, down by -0.3%.

It’s been a good month however for the ASX200 index, climbing by 8% while taking its YTD return to over 9%.

This comes as local shares tracked gains on Wall Street where the S&P 500 is trading just shy of its record highs, in a year driven by artificial-intelligence exuberance and more recently, dovish Fed Reserve bets.

Some analysts believe next year could be even better as the ‘Magnificent Seven’ — Apple,  Amazon, Alphabet,  Meta, Tesla, Nvdia, Microsoft — are expected to post over 20% earnings growth in 2024.

“Companies that have a defined and clear AI strategy with easy-to-follow metrics will likely continue to do well in 2024,” Michael Landsberg at Landsberg Bennett Private Wealth Management told Bloomberg.

On the ASX today, Mining and Energy sectors led the selloff today as prices of iron ore, gold and oil declined overnight, putting pressure on the commodity-heavy ASX.

Gold mining stocks led the losses, as bullion price tumbled 0.5% to US$2,066 an ounce.

Advancers meanwhile include Treasury Wines (ASX:TWE) and News Corp (ASX:NWS), which were up around 1%.

Across the region, Asian stocks were mixed.

Japan’s Nikkei was down half a percent today, but is heading toward its best yearly return in a decade after climbing 30% this year on the back of a weaker yen.

 

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Nickel Industries (ASX:NIC) rose after advising that it has completed the acquisition of an additional 8.25% interest in the Excelsior Nickel Project in Indonesia, increasing its equity interest in the Project to 13.75%.

The additional 8.25% interest was secured through the cash payment of US$189.8m to acquire shares in the Singaporean incorporated holding company, Excelsior International Investments Pte. Ltd, the ultimate owner of the ENC project.

 

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Eagers Automotive (ASX:APE) fell more than half percent today after revealing that it has experienced a cyber incident resulting in an outage that’s disrupting parts of the company’s operations across Australia and New Zealand.

Here’s an excerpt from Eagers’ release:

“While the majority of our dealerships remain open and continue to trade, the extent of the operational impact of the outage is varied across our regions and business units.

“The disruption is primarily impacting our ability to finalise transactions for certain new vehicles which have been sold and ready for delivery and some aspects of the company’s service and parts operations.

“The financial impact of the cyber incident for the year ending 31 December 2023 is expected to primarily relate to the deferral in the recognition of some transactions across the last 5 days of December 2023.

“Although the company’s Statutory Profit Before Tax for the 2023 financial year will be impacted by the cyber incident, predominantly as a result of the deferred sales, the impact is not expected to be material.

“A primary focus of the investigation is to understand whether any personal information has been impacted. This remains under close review. “

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