The Australian sharemarket closed higher on Friday, buoyed by gains in big retailers Harvey Norman and Wesfarmers.
The Australian sharemarket closed higher on Friday, buoyed by gains in big retailers Harvey Norman and Wesfarmers.
By Hannah Kennelly
Updated January 24, 2025 — 4.57pmfirst published at 4.52am
Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day.
The numbers
The Australian sharemarket closed higher on Friday, spurred by rallies in Wesfarmers and Harvey Norman stocks after Wall Street regained some of the momentum that catapulted it to 57 all-time highs last year.
The S&P/ASX200 climbed 30.20 points or 0.4 per cent, to 8408.90 points, with nine out of 11 industry sectors trading in the green. The gains come after the ASX posted a strong performance on Thursday, gaining 0.3 per cent thanks to a surge in technology stocks. The ASX 200 rose 1.2 per cent for the week, during which investors focused on the potential market effects of new US President Donald Trump’s policies.
The Australian dollar saw minor gains, and was valued at US63.17¢ at 4.30pm AEDT.
The lifters
Retail was one of the best-performing sectors on Friday, with Wesfarmers up 3.2 per cent and household retailer Harvey Norman up 2.5 per cent. KMD Brands – which owns Kathmandu, Rip Curl and Oboz – climbed 4 per cent after it said sales trends had improved since November.
Premier Investments skyrocketed 6.6 per cent after shareholders this week backed a deal for Myer to acquire key clothing brands from Premier. Under the deal, Apparel Brands, which includes Jay Jays, Just Jeans, Dotti, Portmans, and Jacqui E, will be absorbed by Myer.
Most big banks gained, with CBA (up 0.5 per cent), Westpac (up 0.2 per cent) and NAB (up 0.6 per cent) all in the green. ANZ shares edged 0.1 per cent lower.
Advertisement
Loading
The healthcare sector posted solid gains, thanks to rises in 4DMedical shares (up 6.2 per cent).
On Friday morning, 4DMedical announced a commercial agreement with Queensland-based Qscan Radiology Clinics to provide its proprietary pulmonary function and pulmonary structure products.
“This partnership ensures that more patients and clinicians have access to detailed, actionable insights into lung health, supporting better healthcare outcomes,” 4DMedical CEO Andreas Fouras said in an ASX statement.
“Momentum continues to build with the commercialisation of our technology across the US and Australia … am excited to see our footprint expand.”
The laggards
Energy was one of the few sectors in red on Friday, with Woodside Energy losing 1.9 per cent, Santos falling 0.1 per cent, and Ampol falling 0.7 per cent. Ampol released its trading results on Thursday, posting a significant decline in earnings and reporting a Lytton Refiner Margin of $US4.60 per barrel for Q4 2024.
Technology shares were mixed, with WiseTech Global falling 1.4 per cent and Xero rising 0.4 per cent.
The lowdown
Shaw and Partners senior investment advisor Craig Sidney said Wesfarmers’ gains were helped by a broker upgrade and noted the energy sector continued to be “quite volatile”.
Loading
“There’s a lot of resting on what’s going on in the US in terms of trying to ramp up global oil production,” he said. “So that’s putting a bit of pressure on oil prices, which flows on to the likes of Woodside and Santos. ”
Overnight on Wall Street, treasury yields took a brief turn upward after President Donald Trump began talking about the prospect of tariffs in a speech by video at the World Economic Forum, saying products made outside of the United States will be subject to a tariff, but they pulled back after he gave few details. Crude prices also sank after Trump called on oil-producing countries to reduce the price of crude, which would ease worries about inflation.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.64 per cent from 4.61 per cent late Wednesday, though it remains below its high from earlier this month. The two-year Treasury yield eased to 4.29 per cent from 4.30 per cent late Wednesday.
Traders don’t expect the report to push the Federal Reserve to cut its main interest rate at its upcoming meeting next week, according to data from CME Group. If they’re correct, it would be the first meeting since September where the Fed hasn’t lowered the federal funds rate to take pressure off the US economy. Lower rates can goose prices for investments, but they can also give inflation more fuel.
Netflix was another one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. It rose another 3.2 per cent after jumping 9.7 per cent the day before following a better-than-expected profit report.
In the cryptocurrency market, where prices have surged on hopes President Donald Trump will make Washington friendlier to the industry, bitcoin fell below $US103,000, according to CoinDesk. It had set a record above $US109,000 on Monday.
Tweet of the day
Quote of the day
“We’re doing it while we still have our marbles and still can book,” said Wilma Skupch, aged 74 and retired for 10 years. “We’ve worked hard, and enough’s enough.”
Skupch is among the increasing number of senior Australians choosing frequent and sometimes extravagant holiday options in older age, as retirees forsake traditional saving habits and adopt the new “spending the kids’ inheritance” (SKI) travel mantra.
Read more of Daniel Lo Surdo’s piece here.
You might have missed
President Donald Trump has told global business leaders they will face steep tariffs if they do not make their products in the US, as he affirmed his intention to raise hundreds of billions, “even trillions”, of dollars through taxes on imports.
Speaking by video from the White House to the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos, Switzerland, Trump ran through his flurry of executive actions since his swearing-in and claimed he had a “massive mandate” from the American people to bring change. He laid out a carrot-and-stick approach for private investment in the US.
With AP, AAP
The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.
Hannah Kennelly is a reporter at The Age. She previously worked as a regional journalist for The Mansfield Courier.Connect via email.
Loading
Discover more from World Byte News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
