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Three popular ASX stocks on Superhero as investors look to diversity after rate hike
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- Investors diversify portfolios on share trading platform Superhero in past week following latest interest rate hike
- Qantas continues to be a popular stock on Superhero as first female CEO appointed
- Blue chip stock and lithium sector continue to be popular among traders including Pilbara Minerals and BHP
What a week it has been on the Aussie share market as what started out positively quickly turned on Tuesday when the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raised rates by another 25 basis points, its 11th rise in the past 12 months.
The cash rate is now 3.85% as Governor Philip Lowe and his mates made it clear that inflation is still far beyond their 2-3% target. Inflation fell from its December peak of 7.8% with annual price increases of 7% for the year to March.
After getting a reprieve from a hike in April the latest rate rise sent a jolt through the local bourse on Tuesday afternoon – with Stockhead’s Gregor Stronach admitting he forgot (reckons only for a few brief moments) the RBA meeting was on and had a “mild panic attack” when he came back from getting a cuppa and looked at the chart to notice a “precipitous sh-tting of the bed had taken place”.
Investors diversifying interests
With investors feeling a little more jaded, we thought to have a look at at what stocks have been popular on investing platform Superhero as we end the week.
“Investors have been diversifying their interests and over the last week, we’ve seen both blue chip stocks and the popular lithium sector among the most popular Australian companies on the platform,” co-founder and CEO John Winters told Stockhead.
“We’re in a challenging time at the moment with high interest rates, bank failures in the US and high inflation – and in response, we’ve seen our investors look to companies with higher, sustainable earnings versus more speculative stocks,” he said.
Three popular stocks
1. Qantas (ASX:QAN)
Winters said Australia’s Flying Kangaroo is continuing to be a popular stock among investors on the platform. QAN this week announced Vanessa Hudson will replace Alan Joyce in November to become the airline’s first female CEO.
Joyce is leaving QAN after 15 years at the helm, during which time the airline’s share price has risen by more than 150%.
Although his legacy may be up for debate between investors and customers, his leadership over the last few years will have left investors pleased – with Qantas posting a record half-yearly profit in FY23 in a significant turnaround after Covid and the share price rising by more than 150% during his tenure.
“Qantas has surged in popularity on Superhero over the last month as travel continues to boom and ahead of Alan Joyce naming his successor,” Winters said.
“The stock has dominated investor interest and April saw the most trades placed in Qantas on the Superhero platform in a single month ever.”
2. Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS)
Lithium play PLS is also continuing to attract attention of investors on Superhero.
“Despite a massive supply response and lithium prices continuing to decline, activity across the lithium sector continues to be robust with a focus on Pilbara Minerals over the last week,” Winters said.
“Lithium stocks on Superhero were consistently popular in 2022 and with Australia one of the world’s biggest lithium producers as well as lots of noise from other lithium miners like Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) of late, it’s no surprise that Pilbara Minerals continues to capture our investors’ attention.”
PLS saw its export prices fall a massive 15% in the March quarter, from US$5668/dmt on a 5.4% basis to US$4840/dmt on a 5.3% basis (equivalent to US$5522/t if the product were at 6% Li2O spec).
Costs rose 9% to $632/dmt on a 9% drop in production to 148,131t and 3% fall in sales to 144,312dmt, affected by downtime at the Ngungaju plant, but remained around a tenth of sales prices.
As Stockhead’s Josh Chiat pointed out it’s worth remembering spodumene out of WA was selling for around US$400/t two-and-a-half years ago.
3. BHP (ASX:BHP)
The Big Australian blue chip stock BHP was the third most bought Aussie company over the last week on Superhero.
“BHP is a consistently popular stock and with its takeover of OZ Minerals having been in the works for some time, our investors have been interested in the stock over the last few weeks,” Winters said.
“There’s likely a few reasons for BHP’s popularity on the platform in the last few weeks but looking further out, investors continue to be drawn to its exposure to copper, its fully franked dividends and overall scale.”
BHP picked up the $1.7 billion West Musgrave project in its $9.6 billion purchase of copper miner OZ Minerals (ASX:OZL) , which delisted from the ASX on Wednesday following the deal.
The QAN, PLS & BHP share price today:
The views, information, or opinions expressed in the interviews in this article are solely those of the interviewees and do not represent the views of Stockhead. Stockhead does not provide, endorse or otherwise assume responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article.
Disclosure: The author held shares in BHP at the time of writing this article.
