As fund managers close their books on another reporting season, they are quick to remind investors that trading conditions aren’t getting any easier. While the S&P/ASX 200 rose about 1 per cent in August, that masked some major moves in individual stocks.
The rotation in market leadership accelerated as renewed optimism about copper boosted miners, while concerns about credit demand, property prices, and bad debts hit the banks, helping BHP solidify its position as the ASX’s most valuable company.
The beaten down healthcare sector delivered its strongest monthly return on record, but real estate and consumer discretionary were whacked by worries about the health of the domestic economy.
And then of course, there was the volatility, which has become a growing feature of reporting season amid the rise of passive investing and the increasing presence of pod shops and quant funds, which trade on daily market events.
Nearly half the companies listed on the S&P/ASX 200 saw their share price move by more than 5 per cent in either direction on results day, far above the average 28 per cent of stocks that experience such an outsized reaction, according to Goldman Sachs.
The wild swings in stock prices are throwing up more opportunities for investors, so The Australian Financial Review asked some of the country’s top fund managers how they traded the reporting season.
Source: https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/ten-stock-pickers-on-how-they-traded-a-wild-reporting-season-20260903-p60u3v