Raiz stocks report: Coles trades soaring while South 32 shares surge on new copper deal

The cost-of-living crisis is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, from tradies to politicians and everyone in between but there are always opportunities to be found.

One stock that looks like an opportunity to Raiz investors is Coles Group ($COL), which has experienced a 92 per cent increase in volume traded on Raiz over the past week.

There were over 1,000 shares traded this week, an almost 2,500 per cent increase on a month ago when the group barely managed to crack 50 shares traded. The key now for investors is a hefty 6 per cent dividend yield, with the lower share price of the group resulting in an appealing price/earnings ratio.

Coles has grown its payout annually since 2019 and Commsec is forecasting a dividend per share of 67 cents, which is a grossed-up dividend yield of around 6 per cent with franking credits.

A copper deal in Queensland has also been a key driver for investors, as traders jump at South 32’s ($S32) latest Mergers & Acquisition activity. There were over 11,000 shares traded in the Perth-based metals company over the last week, up 61 per cent on the week prior and over 5,500 per cent on a month ago.

The company has signed an earn-in agreement with Hammer Metals’ Isa Valley copper project in Queensland, which gives it the option to form a joint venture in the future. It’s hardly the only M&A activity that South 32 has in its sights, with the CEO recently remarking that he was open to buying Anglo America’s manganese operations - but for the right price.

The other popular stock this week was Mirvac Group which experienced a 65 per cent increase in shares traded to 1,099. The group is forecast to have a difficult year, with a recent Citi broker’s note predicting a third consecutive year of earnings decline.

The company is very exposed to the difficulties in the construction industry and has seen lower apartment completions and slimmer profit margins. However, all eyes are on the housing market, with different levels of government promising to build more, which could set Mirvac up for success in the future.

On the flip side, AGL Energy ($AGL) saw a 47 per cent decline in its trading activity, dipping below 3,000 shares traded for the week. The company had been on a bit of a hot streak with investors, climbing steadily since the end of April so this decline may just be taking it back to its previous levels.

Medibank Private ($MPL) also saw a dip in interest, down 20 per cent. The company recently received a second class action lawsuit over a data breach but it is still Australia’s largest private health insurance business. In its first-half results, the business said it remained on track to deliver on its guidance of policyholder growth which would translate into a bigger profit and dividend.

Once again, however, the real growth was to be found in the ETF sector despite a 10 per cent drop in overall units trades this week. The total ETF investments were over 1,000 per cent higher than stocks, with almost 550,000 units traded.

One of the newcomers to the top 10 was the SEMI ETF which is the Global X Semiconductor ETF. It invests in companies that stand to benefit from the broader adoption of tech-enabled devices that require semiconductors. China recently pumped over $70b into the sector which is likely to dominate advanced technologies of the future.

It’s a popular theme with a 35 per cent increase, to over 10,000 units traded.

The rest of the top 10 remained fairly stagnant with a few moves downwards. None are quite substantial enough to indicate a trend, but rather may just be as a result of a slight dip in trading volume for the week.

The information contained in this email is general information only and does not take into account your financial situation, objectives or needs.

Raiz Invest Australia Limited – Authorised Representative of AFSL 434776. The Raiz Invest Australia Fund is issued in Australia by Instreet Investment Limited (ACN 128 813 016 AFSL 434776) a subsidiary of Raiz Invest Limited and promoted by Raiz Invest Australia Limited (ACN 604 402 815). PDS and TMD are available on the Raiz Invest website and App. You should read and consider those documents before deciding whether, or not, to acquire and continue to hold interests in the product.