A wave of buy-the-dip momentum has gripped Australia’s sharemarket, particularly among retail traders, giving a much-needed shot in the arm to some of the most heavily sold-down stocks on the domestic bourse.
One of the standouts has been logistics software giant WiseTech Global, which has jumped a massive 30 per cent in just two weeks since allegations emerged that founder Richard White was involved in human trafficking.
The stock jumped 5.7 per cent on Tuesday alone to $37.37 a piece on news that White had stepped down as chairman but would continue as chief innovation officer.
In a win for individual investors who had been hoping to have picked the bottom, WiseTech was the third-most traded stock last week on retail brokerage platform CommSec, which is owned by Commonwealth Bank.
Raymond Azizi, sales trader at CMC Markets, said trading of WiseTech shares on the platform jumped 242 per cent in June from the previous month.
“The market has shifted from chasing momentum to chasing second chances,” Azizi said. “Investors are looking at quality companies that have already absorbed a significant amount of bad news.”
The biggest driver of the S&P/ASX 200 Index’s winter resurgence has been the healthcare sector, which carved out a ninth-straight day of gains on Tuesday in what was an otherwise flat day for the Australian bourse.
The sector is now up nearly 20 per cent in the last month, led by blood plasma maker CSL, whose share price just a few weeks ago was trading at a decade-low near $90 after a series of profit downgrades and management changes.
CSL, which last week topped the list of most popular trades by retail investors on CommSec, has surged 35 per cent since June 3 to close at $123.97 on Tuesday.
The shares nosedived in May after the former blue chip slashed its earnings forecasts that it had reaffirmed only three months earlier and announced one of the biggest write-downs in Australian corporate history.
It capped off a year that included two profit downgrades, the sacking of Paul McKenzie, and a ditched plan to spin off its vaccines unit, Seqirus, after US vaccination rates plunged.
“Some investors believe that the vaccine scepticism culture that has surged in the US since Robert F. Kennedy Jr was installed as health secretary in 2025 is temporary,” said ETF Shares chief executive Cliff Man, a former biotech analyst.
Where are the earnings?
Other names in the sector that have rallied include sleep apnoea device maker ResMed, which has bounced 20 per cent since mid-June, and hearing implant manufacturer Cochlear, which jumped by a similar amount.
Cancer diagnostics supplier Telix Pharmaceuticals has also rocketed nearly 40 per cent since June 3, recouping much of the lost ground over the last 12 months after a series of regulatory setbacks drove the share price below $10 in February. Despite the shares easing on Tuesday, Telix closed at $16.90.
In the smaller end of the sharemarket, lung imaging software company 4DMedical, whose shares soared more than 2000 per cent to a high of $7.55 in the 12 months through April, has also staged a winter rebound after falling below $3.50 in late May. The stock has jumped more than 30 per cent since then, clambering to $4.42 on Tuesday.
4DMedical was the second-most bought stock on Commsec last week, but Seneca portfolio manager Luke Laretive warned the company was trading at a “stratospheric” enterprise value to sales multiple of 115 times.
Similarly, Ten Cap portfolio manager Jun Bei Liu said ResMed was the only stock that stood out among the so-called phoenixes of the healthcare sector, warning that the market had become too optimistic about CSL and Cochlear in particular.
“ResMed is an easy buy,” Liu said. “With double-digit earnings growth and a 20 times earnings multiple, it is at its cheapest point in years.”
Alphinity client portfolio manager Elfreda Jonker went even further, warning that for CSL, Cochlear, 4D Medical, and even WiseTech, “the market is pricing in an improvement that hasn’t shown up in earnings yet”.
The other sector on the up has been consumer discretionary, which has jumped 12 per cent in a month after coming under pressure from the cost-of-living crisis and a series of rapid interest rate rises from the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Aristocrat Leisure, Australia’s biggest manufacturer of poker machines, has jumped 20 per cent in the last month, while Bunnings owner Wesfarmers is up 12 per cent, and Myer nearly 17 per cent. Electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi has bounced more than 10 per cent since June 3.
And while the ASX technology sector has fallen about 2.5 per cent in the last month, accounting software giant Xero has joined WiseTech in the rebound, climbing about 15 per cent since falling to $65 last month. TechnologyOne is also up 13 per cent since June 23.
Source: https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/health-stocks-and-wisetech-are-on-a-tear-in-buy-the-dip-boom-20260706-p60d1t