ASX closes higher after Santa rally; CBA repays $68m to customers

The local sharemarket made considerable gains in its penultimate trading session before Christmas, with big banks and miners helping push the bourse to its highest point in over a month on Tuesday.

The Santa rally was in full swing, with the S&P/ASX 200 ending the day up 95 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 8795, with all industry sectors in the green. It was the ASX’s highest close since November 13.

Financial stocks rose helped by Commonwealth Bank – the biggest stock on the index – adding 2.1 per cent, while Westpac gained 1.2 per cent. Fellow big four members National Australia Bank and ANZ were also up 1 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively.

CBA also announced it would return $68 million in unfair fees charged to low-income customers as part of the bank’s response to the corporate watchdog ASIC’s report earlier this year. The payments are on top of $25 million the bank had already paid back in November.

“While this is a good outcome it should not have taken multiple ASIC reviews and widespread criticism to force banks to do the right thing by their most disadvantaged customers,” ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland said.

“As a result of ASIC’s work on this issue, banks have now committed to refund a total of over $160 million to people on low incomes across Australia.”

Mining stocks were largely positive, with iron ore heavyweights BHP (1.3 per cent) and Rio Tinto (1.4 per cent) rising, though Fortescue remained down 0.6 per cent.

Gold miners made a muted showing despite bullion touching record prices of $US4469 ($6700), with Northern Star falling 0.9 per cent and Evolution Mining gaining just 0.15 per cent.

Energy stocks advanced as oil prices jumped. Woodside Energy added 1.65 per cent and Santos was up 0.9 per cent.

Ramsay Health Care rose 3.2 per cent as it emerged as the first beneficiary of the Healthscope collapse after announcing plans to acquire its Canberra hospital for $251 million.

Industrial property giant Goodman was one of the day’s best performers, gaining 8.5 per cent after the company announced it had signed a $14 billion European data centre partnership with a Canadian pension fund.

Real estate stocks were also aided by the announcement one of Australia’s largest super funds, ART, would add to its retail property holdings by purchasing a 19.9 per cent interest in Scentre Group’s Westfield Sydney for $864 million. Scentre will continue to own 80.1 per cent of Westfield Sydney and will remain the property’s leasing and development manager. Its stock rose 0.48 per cent.

On Wall Street, the gains were broad. Technology companies and banks did much of the heavy lifting. Industrial companies also gave a strong push to major indexes.

The S&P 500 rose 43.99 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 6878.49. The Dow Jones rose 227.79 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 48,362.68. The Nasdaq composite rose 121.21 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 23,428.83.

Smaller company stocks did particularly well. The Russell 2000 index outpaced other major indexes with a 1.2 per cent gain.

The gains also helped major indexes push further into winning territory for the month as a choppy December nears its end. Technology companies, especially those focused on artificial intelligence, have been the main force behind the market’s oscillations. The direction of AI-related stocks will likely determine whether the market closes out December with gains or losses.

“If a Santa Claus rally does kick in this year, St Nick’s gift bag will likely need to be full of positive tech sentiment,” wrote Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.

Australia’s sharemarket will close early on Wednesday for Christmas Eve and remain closed on Thursday for Christmas.

With AP

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