The ASX is higher today with the S&P/ASX200 gaining 36.90 points or 0.47% to 7,814.60. The index has lost 1.68% for the last five days but sits 4.16% below its 52-week high.
Top-performing stocks in this index are JB Hi-Fi Ltd and TabCorp Holdings Ltd, up 7.90% and 7.08% respectively.
Sectors were mostly higher today. Information Technology was among the best performed with a gain of 1.65%. The worst performed was Materials which lost 0.43%.
Over on the small caps index, the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO) gained 0.58% today to 2,942.70. Over the past five days, the index is 1.89% higher.
JB Hi-Fi delivers solid results
Josh Gilbert, market analyst at eToro had the following to say about JB’s results.
"JB Hi-Fi delivered a solid full-year result this morning, with net income beating estimates and the announcement of a special full-franked dividend.
“In what has been a tough period for retailers, there was undoubtedly a grey cloud looming over JB Hi-Fi’s results today but these figures show resilience and the market will be duly impressed.
“These results demonstrate how we continue to see consumers saying one thing and doing another. Consumer confidence is highly pessimistic but JB-HiFi’s July update showed sales have grown across all areas of the business year-over-year.
"This strong indicator of increasing consumer spending comes at a time when interest rates are sitting at their highest level in a decade.
“The tax cuts implemented at the start of the financial year could be one of the key drivers of sales through July, ultimately offering consumers some ‘discretionary’ cash that they wouldn’t have had this time a year ago, which has given them the freedom to splurge on new electronics.
“With shares climbing 40% in the last year, shareholders will be more than pleased and today's results will emphasise exactly why shares have been on a tear. JB has done it again; it’s a fantastic business, and although the retailer's time in the sun won’t last forever, this is a great result at a time when many had expected a lot worse."
Buying the dip
Rob Talevski, CEO, Webull Securities Australia, suggests that the COVID sell-off event taught traders to find opportunity in volatility. He notes that traders on the platform are buying the dip in the form of various ETFs, rather than taking risks on individual stocks.
“We’ve seen more buying than selling among Australian traders since volatility spiked last Friday, which has presented itself chiefly in increased ETF buying volumes.
"Daily US ETF volumes from Australian traders on the Webull platform jumped by 83% as traders bought the US dip and Australian ETF volumes jumped 59% versus the average volume of the previous week.
“Speculation of US rate cuts has also breathed life into bond ETFs, which have trended higher as expectations of lower US yields increase.
"This buying strength tells us that investors have cash ready to meet the opportunities presented as markets pull back, while a 260% increase in US options volumes and a mix of bullish and bearish Nasdaq ETF trades tells us that traders are using these instruments to manage risk.
“While the latest sell-off has no doubt negatively impacted most investor portfolios locally, the short, sharp shocks that we’ve witnessed since the last deep COVID sell-off have taught traders to find opportunity in volatility and, rather than taking risks on individual stocks, we’re seeing more ETFs enter our top-10 traded, including the bullish and bearish US semiconductor ETFs, which include the likes of Nvidia, AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM).”
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