ASX 200 afternoon report: 23 April 2024

The ASX 200 trades 33 points (0.45%) higher at 7,683 at 2:00pm AEST.

ASX 200's volatile journey

The ASX 200 has extended its spirited fightback into a second session this week after a wrecking ball ripped through the local market last week. At Friday's low point, the ASX 200 had fallen 418 points or 5.3% from its record 7910.5 high - its most significant pullback since the rally from the October lows commenced.

While a cooling in geopolitical tensions over the weekend removed one of the reasons for last week's demolishing act, concerns remain, including sticky inflation, hawkish Fed Speak, US bond yields at year-to-date highs, and nerves ahead of Q1 2024 earnings of the Mega Tech names that powered US equity markets to new highs in the first quarter of this year.

Anticipating the RBA's next move

Wednesday's Australia’s Q1 2024 inflation report is the main event on the local calendar this week. Headline inflation is expected to have increased by 0.8% QoQ for an annual rate of 3.5%, easing from 4.1% in the prior quarter. The RBA's preferred measure of inflation, the Trimmed Mean, is expected to rise by 0.8% QoQ, for 3.8% YoY, down from 4.2% in the prior quarter. If correct, this would be the slowest rate of Trimmed Mean inflation since March 2022 and may further help to heal fragile risk sentiment.

ASX stocks

Healthcare sector:

• Ramsay Health Care surged 2.55% to $52.38
• Ansell added 1.39% to $25.59
• Biotech giant CSL added 1.33% to $279.14
• Pro Medicus gained 1.23% to $105.40

Financial sector:

• CBA led with a 1.2% increase to $114.23
• Macquarie gained 1.08% to $188.62
• Westpac added 1.05% to $26.00
• NAB added 1.02% to $33.74
• ANZ edged 0.53% higher to $28.38

Mining sector:

• Rio Tinto added 0.32% to $130.18
• BHP increased by 0.18% to $45.40
• Mineral Resources fell 0.46% to $68.63
• Fortescue lost 0.52% to $24.66

Gold and mining stocks

• Gold price dropped $60 overnight to $2,327
• Silver Lake Resources slipped 4.88% to $1.36
• Regis Resources lost 4.55% to $2.10
• Northern Star Resources fell 4.22% to $14.63
• Evolution Mining decreased by 2.62% to $3.90

ASX 200 technical analysis

After tagging our 7,500 pullback target on Friday, we expect the ASX 200 to encounter stiff resistance on bounces back towards 7,700/50, from where we would expect to see the ASX 200 commence another leg lower (Wave C of an ABC correction). To negate the technical damage from last week's sell-off and to avoid taking another leg lower, the ASX 200 would need to reclaim resistance at 7,760/80ish on a sustained basis.

ASX 200 daily chart

• ^{Source TradingView. The figures stated are as of 23 April 2024. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. This report does not contain and is not to be taken as containing any financial product advice or financial product recommendation.}