ASX 200 afternoon report: 21st of February 2023

It’s been a roller coaster ride on the ASX 200 today, which in early trading, fell to a five-week low at 7297 before embarking on a 40-point recovery in the afternoon session.

Mining sector

The recovery was led by the big miners as the price of iron ore futures in Asia climbed above $131 per tonne following an upgrade by a US investment bank.

• Mineral Resources added 4.59% to $85.61
• Fortescue added 2.83% to $23.23
• Rio Tinto added 1.44% to $126.95
• BHP fell 0.14% to $48.39 after trading to a low of $47.11 on an earnings miss.

Consumer-facing stocks

The release of the RBA meeting minutes, which reiterated the hawkish tone of the February Board Meeting, heaped more pain on consumer-facing stocks.

• A2M fell 5.16% to $6.16, extending falls after yesterday’s earning miss
• Endeavour Group fell 2.54% to $6.71
• Coles fell 1.6% to $18.01 despite its stronger-than-expected earnings report
• Blackmores fell 1.55% to $84.20
• Altium fell 6.84% to $27.27 after reporting mixed earnings yesterday afternoon
• Sezzle fell 1.72% to $0.57c
• Computershare fell 1.37% to $23.78
• Seek fell 1.13% to $24.05.

Real estate sector

The real estate sector has fallen, led by a 3.6% fall in Stockland Group after its earnings results were impacted by wet weather and interest rate rise uncertainty—a similar story to the one we have had from other developers this earnings season. Lend Lease fell 1.86% to $7.64, and Goodman Group fell 1.7% to $19.47.

Financial sector

The bargain hunters who bravely stuck their hands up yesterday to buy banking stocks after last week's sharp falls were nowhere to be seen today.

• Westpac fell 1.04% to $22.77
• NAB fell 0.83% to $30.05
• ANZ fell 0.7% to $24.57
• CBA, which trades ex-dividend on Wednesday, fell 0.6% to $101.64.

Lithium sector

A better day for Lithium miners as Pilbara Resources snapped its four-day losing streak adding 4.76% to $4.40.

• Core Lithium surged 5.43% to $4.40
• Liontown Resources added 4.26% to $1.35
• Lake Resources added 4% to $0.64c.

Technical analysis

In late January, we shifted from a bullish view of the ASX 200 and suggested cutting longs ahead of the bull market 7632 high. Our target for the current pullback is the 7200/7000 support area, coming from the uptrend support from the October 6411 low and the 200-day moving average.

ASX 200 daily chart