Weekly Wrap: Australian Share Market Soars: ASX 200 Hits Record Highs Amid Investor Optimism
A strong all-round performance so the Australian share market posted a solid weekly gain as investors once again stayed bullish in the face of adversity.
By the market close on Friday, it had achieved its strongest weekly gain since [specific date or period] and recorded three record closes.
The ASX 200 added 118.2 points, or 1.4% to reach 8757.20 points on Friday with all 11 sectors rising higher to produce the strongest one day rise since April.
Flying through the 8700 mark
Cracking through the 8700 mark for the first time also brought the weekly rise to 2.1% with heavyweights including big miner BHP and pharma giant CSL both gaining traction.
BHP chief executive Mike Henry pleased investors by saying that commodity demand remained resilient with Chinese demand remaining strong.
That helped to push BHP (ASX: BHP) up 3% to $40.29 on Friday as Mike Henry reported record output across the giant miner’s key commodities.
Copper production was up 8% to an all-time high of 2.01 million tonnes and the vital Pilbara iron ore mines managed to churn out 290 million tonnes of export seaborne ore despite some cyclone disruptions.
Iron ore price rising
BHP was also helped as iron ore hit a three-month high, with the price jumping after Mike Henry said that demand for commodities had stayed resilient in 2025 thanks to Chinese demand.
He said that China continued to grow its overall export base even as exports to the US declined and the property sector remained in a slump as domestic demand recovered after the Covid downturn.
The positivity came despite higher costs for BHP’s Canadian potash project Jensen and rubbed off on other miners including Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) which rose 1.8% and Fortescue (ASX: FMG) which was up 0.5%.
Lithium producer Liontown Resources (ASX: LTR) saw its shares jump 10% on the back of a stronger outlook for battery metals.
All four banks were also up strongly, from 0.9% for the sector leader Commonwealth (ASX: CBA) to a 1.8% rise for Westpac (ASX: WBC).
As well as BHP and the big bank’s strong performance, the healthcare sector was on fire, rising 2.5% as sector hero CSL (ASX: CSL) jumped an impressive 3.6% to $257.38.
Over the week CSL jumped an impressive 7% on the back of continuing positive broker reports and an easing of worries about US drug tariffs.
Regenerative medicine company Mesoblast (ASX: MSB) also had a massive day, with its shares racing up 34.7% to $2.41 after it reported strong early sales of its cell therapy Ryoncil, which started to be commercially available in March.
The stem-cell treatment for a complication of bone marrow transfers in children achieved gross sales of US$13.2 million ($20.3 million) for the Melbourne company.
Clarity Pharmaceuticals (ASX: CU6) also pushed 11.8% higher.
Shares in the recently floated Virgin Australia (ASX: VGN) were up 1.9% to $3.27 as UBS issued a buy rating and $3.90 target for the company, saying it now had a clearer strategy, stronger fundamentals, and an improved structure since relisting.
The week ahead
One of the most awaited events of the coming week is the release of the minutes from the Reserve Bank board’s decision to hold interest rates steady in July.
That surprise split decision is now looking increasingly like a big mistake, with the unemployment rate since rising, making a cut from the current 3.85% cash rate looking like the right call.
The European Central Bank is also meeting this week with most observers expecting it to also keep official interest rate steady.
Aside from the release of New Zealand inflation figures, much of the action in the coming week will revolve around the continuing company profit reports being released in Australia and the US.