ASX 200 afternoon report: 23 July 2024

The ASX 200 trades 45 points (0.57%) higher at 7976 at 3.00pm AEST.

The ASX 200 today snapped a three-day losing streak, boosted by overnight gains on Wall Street following its worst week since April. The tech sector led gains on Wall Street on reports that Nvidia is working on an export-compliant AI chip for China.

ASX 200 stocks

IT sector

The positive sentiment flowed through to local IT stocks.

• Zip surged 6.93% to $1.81 after officially rejoining the ASX 200 yesterday, requiring funds that track the index to add it to portfolios
• EML Payments gained 2.27% to $0.90
• Wisetech Global added 1.83% to $95.81
• Computershare added 1.76% to $26.56.

Health Care sector

Despite US President Biden withdrawing from the US Presidential election race over the weekend, the most likely outcome remains a Republican sweep of Congress under Donald Trump, a scenario expected to be supportive of the US healthcare sector. Riding the “Trump Trade” tailwinds, the ASX 200 Health Care sector gained 1.22% to its highest level in two and a half years.

• Ansell added 3.15% to $27.48
• Bionic ear company Cochlear gained 2.21% to $335.35
• Biotech giant CSL gained 0.87% to $311.87, on track for its highest daily close in seventeen months.

Banking sector

The big banks gained, led by NAB.

• NAB added 1.76% to $37.57
• Westpac added 1.30% to $28.44
• CBA gained 1.15% to $133.21
• ANZ added 1.09% to $29.80
• Macquarie edged 0.11% higher to $209.31.

Mining sector

The tepid growth and housing data from China last week continue to weigh on iron ore, which fell 2.3% to $101.10 p/t on the Singapore Futures exchange today.

• Fortescue lost 1.58% to $21.19
• Mineral Resources fell 0.46% to $54.53
• Rio Tinto fell 0.39% to $114.00
• BHP bucked the trend as it rose 0.31% to $41.77.

Energy sector

DroneShield remains in free fall, losing 5.16% to $1.47 after its half-yearly update yesterday disappointed and energy giant Woodside lost 3.48% to $27.60 following its disappointing quarterly production update.

ASX 200 technical analysis

Yesterday, the ASX 200 fell back to support at 7910/7900, the level that capped it for three and a half months prior to its recent break higher. Providing the ASX 200 holds above 7900 on a sustained basis, a retest and break of last week's record high at 8083 is possible. However, if the ASX 200 were to see a sustained break below 7900/7850, it would expose the rally to last week's 8083 high as a false break higher and warn that a deeper pullback is underway.

ASX 200 daily chart

• _{Source: TradingView. The figures stated are as of 23 July 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.}