By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 added 13 points or 0.2% to 7,033.6 after the first hour of Tuesday’s trade, extending gains for the 3rd consecutive session as investors monitored local earnings reports, while fresh consumer confidence data came in weaker than expected.
ASX 200 Futures were trading 0.2% higher.
Among stocks, Real estate companies led the gains, up 0.7% with Goodman Group (ASX:GMG) up 1%, Charter Hall Group (ASX:CHC) adding 1.8% and Mirvac Group (ASX:MGR) lifting 1.2%.
Consumer Discretionary gained 0.7% with Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX:DMP) easing 0.1%, JB Hi-Fi Ltd (ASX:JBH) up 0.3%, Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH) adding 0.5%, Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX:ALL) up 1% and Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX:WES) gaining 0.7%.
Meantime, Financials fell 0.8% with Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX:MQG) up 0.9%, Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (ASX:CBA) down 1.4%, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) dipping 0.4% and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX:WBC) down 1.2%.
National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX:NAB) fell 3.7% after the big four bank delivered a $1.8 billion cash profit in the third quarter, noting a benign outlook for credit quality, while the impact of rising interest rates was offset by higher funding costs.
Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) added 8.31% after reporting strong revenues over FY22 as the company continues to expand its data centre footprint in the United States.
On the data front, Westpac’s Consumer Sentiment index fell 3% to 81.2 in August, declining for the 9th consecutive month amid surging inflation pressures and further tightening from RBA officials.
Westpac chief economist Bill Evans noted that while this is likely to be the bottom, sustained improvement is “unlikely while overall confidence in the housing market deteriorates”.
On the bond markets, Australia 10-Year yields were at 3.19% while United States 10-Year rates were at 2.757%.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 added 0.2% to 11,724.