How high can it go? ASX200 sets another all-time high

Australia’s leading market index is continuing its relentless march forward after setting another record high in early trade on Friday.

The ASX200 hit an all-time high of 8245.5 points less than an hour into the final session of the week — up 16 points from Thursday’s close. It later trimmed those gain but was still sitting at 8228.2 — up 0.4 per cent — at 9.20am.

Real estate, IT and discretionary stock did the heavy lifting early but managed to rally support from miners, telcos, energy and the banks. Consumer staples was the only sector to slip into the red.

The biggest gainers were Neuren Pharmaceuticals (up 7.6 per cent), Telix Pharmaceuticals (up 5.1 per cent) and Zip (up 4.6 per cent). WA gold explorer De Grey Mining, Seek, Charter Hall, Bluescope Steel, James Hardie and Domino’s Pizza were also among the top-10 performers.

On the flip side, Inghams (down 2.6 per cent), uranium miner Deep Yellow (down 2.5 per cent) and fellow yellow cake producer Boss Energy (down 2.2 per cent) were the three biggest laggards.

Also heading into negative territory were IGO, Computershare and lithium miners Arcadium and Pilbara Minerals.

Among the big miners, BHP was up just 0.5 per cent to $40.41,but Rio Tinto slipped 0.3 per cent to $113.26 and Fortescue was down 0.2 per cent to $17.60.

Wesfarmers climbed one per cent to $70.85 and Woodside Energy was up just over one per cent to $24.86.

The new record came off the back of a stellar lead from Wall Street in the US overnight Thursday.

The S&P500 achieved a record high close a day after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 basis points and indicated more rate cuts were on the horizon.

Heavyweight stocks that have enjoyed much of this year’s stock market rally made fresh gains, with Tesla surging more than 7.0 per cent and Apple and Meta Platforms each up almost 4.0 per cent.

AI powerhouse Nvidia jumped 4.0 per cent, helping lift the PHLX semiconductor index surge 4.3 per cent.

Fed chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said the US economy remained strong and the central bank would decide on the appropriate pace of future rate cuts.

“The Fed has sanctioned a pretty strong economic picture here, and so we’re just seeing the money flow back into some of the sectors that have perhaps underperformed so far this quarter,” said James Ragan, director of Wealth Management Research at DA Davidson.