ASX extends rally as investors buy gold miners, banks

The news: The Australian sharemarket rallied for a fifth consecutive day, despite losses early in the session, following the release of the latest inflation figures. Gold miners and banks were among the biggest winners.

The benchmark ASX 200 rose 0.77% to end at 8,349.1, with six out of 11 sectors finishing in green.

Biggest winners:

• Gold miners — Bellevue Gold (7.07%), Regis Resources (5.41%), Westgold Resources (4.64%), Genesis Minerals (4.26%), and West African Resources (4.03%) made up five of the top 10 performing stocks. Gold prices were boosted on Tuesday, before paring gains, due to weakness in the US dollar and an announcement of gold purchases by China's central bank. Regis also posted higher December quarter production and said record gold prices helped to build record cash and bullion. West African also reported an uplift in Q4 output.
• Banks — Commonwealth Bank (1.68%), NAB (1.82%), Westpac (1.4%) and ANZ (1.72%) all jumped following the latest inflation figures. Elsewhere, UBS analysts are forecasting Australian banks to underperform in 2025.

Fund and wealth manager news:

• Magellan Financial Group (0.64%) — Posted its first drop in FUM since August 2024 as it experienced $400 million in outflows during December and noted it would take performance fees of about $6 million.
• Insignia Financial (-0.24%) — Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to ‘equal weight’ and lifted its price target by two-thirds to $4.40 following takeover interest in the company.
• Regal Partners (-1.33%) — Beat estimates for funds under management (FUM) in the December quarter but recorded lower-than-expected performance fee revenue during the second half of 2024.
• GQG (-4.61%) — Reported USD200 million ($321 million) in outflows during December following US government bribery charges against its key portfolio holding Adani Group.