• The ASX tracked Wall Street to a 1% rise on Thursday
  • Mining, Tech and Financials led
  • Telstra touched six-year highs

 

Local shares rose around 1% on Thursday, tracking movements in Europe and Wall Street overnight.

The ASX got a boost as traders placed bets on the RBA rate hiking cycle to finally be over in April. The futures market indicates a more-than-fair chance of a 25bp in March, before a likely pause in April.

This comes as the local jobs market eases, with job vacancies falling by 1.5% to 438,500 for the three months to February according to ABS data today.

However, the ABS said, “The decline in job vacancies this quarter was driven by retail trade. Despite this being the third consecutive quarterly decrease, the level of job vacancies in February 2023 remained elevated.”

Mining, Tech and Financials led the ASX rally today, while the Real Estate sector lagged.

Telstra (ASX:TSL) touched a 2017-high of $4.24 earlier today before retreating.

DEXUS Property (ASX:DXS) fell slightly after BOQ chief Patrick Allaway quit its board.

 

Elsewhere this arvo..

Clive Palmer has reportedly sued the Australian government for $198.2 billion in damages related to stalled iron ore projects and emergency legislation passed by the WA government.

New Chinese Premier Li Qiang called China an “anchor for world peace”, and said the world’s second-biggest economy is about to recover – in a speech to business execs.

“Chaos and conflicts must not happen in Asia, otherwise the future of Asia would be lost,” Li said.

“In this uncertain world, the certainty China offers is an anchor for world peace and development. This is the case in the past and will remain so in the future.”

The country is meanwhile about to crack down on social media content, in a sign the CCP might not be done just yet in clamping down its tech industry.

Japan meanwhile said it was facing a labour shortage of more than 11 million workers by 2040 as its population ages rapidly.

Later tonight, the third and final December quarter GDP reading is due for release in the US, along with weekly initial jobless claims.

 

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Medibank Private (ASX:MPL) was up 0.6% despite the filing of a shareholder class action in the Supreme Court of Victoria in relation to its cyber breach announced last year. A similar class action was already filed in the Federal Court in early February.

Imdex (ASX:IMD) was the best large cap performer, up 10%, on no particular news.

Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) also rose 8% on no specific news.

 

BIG CAP LOSERS

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