The ASX had a winning day today.
The S&P/ASX200 gained 81.40 points or 1.13% to 7,268.10 and crossing above its 20-day moving average.
Over the last five days, the index has gained 2.55%, but is down 2.37% for the last year to date.
The top performing stocks were Computershare Ltd up 11.24% and Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU, OTC:IUGNF) up 6.56%.
Imugene company director Dr Jens Eckstein acquired 15 million shares, displaying his confidence in the company.
Imugene's share price closed at $0.32 as investors piled in after the change of director's interest notice was published to the ASX.
Eckstein excised the option to acquire 15 million of the 25 million shares he is eligible to own between February 4 and February 7, while disposing 2.1 million of them.
Five million of the shares were acquired at $0.04 per share, while 10 million were issued at $0.042 per share. The 2.1 million disposed shares were sold on market at $0.30 per share.
Imugene has a market cap of $1.86 billion and Eckstein’s stake is worth $4.19 million based on today’s share price.
As for Computershare, it released a strong half and guidance upgrade, reporting a net profit after tax rise of 27% for the six months to December 31 to $US92.1 million, while revenue grew 5.9% to $US1.16 billion.
The positive performance and strong results led Computershare to increase it full year management earnings per share guidance to be 9% higher compared to the original 2% guidance in August.
Computershare declared an interim dividend of US24 cents a share.
Consumer sentiment hit by inflation
The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of consumer sentiment reports that inflation and interest rate worries are weighing heavily on consumer sentiment.
Consumer sentiment fell 1.3% to 100.8 in February from 102.2 in January.
It is now 7.6% lower than this time last year.
Increased pressure on family finances was higher. Finances as compared with a year ago were down 9.2%.
"The most likely explanations for these elevated pressures on finances relate to: Omicron-related disruptions to activity and earnings at the start of the year; the rising cost of living; and the prospect of rising interest rates," Westpac says.
The "time to buy a dwelling" index dropped 2.4% from January to be 29.6% down from February 2021. Looming interest rate rises pose the greatest fear along with housing market unaffordability.
On the small cap front
- Caspin Resources Ltd finished 43.06% higher.
- Galileo Mining Ltd finished 16.22% higher.
- Surefire Resources NL finished 14.29% higher.
- Castillo Copper Ltd finished 13.64% higher.
- FYI Resources Ltd finished 13.79% higher.
- Elementos Limited finished 7.14% higher.
- Meteoric Resources NL finished 6.67% higher.
- Sensen Networks Ltd finished 2.85% higher.
- Pan Asia Metals Ltd finished 1.69% higher.
- Anteris Technologies Ltd finished 1.17% higher.