Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index returned 5.75 per cent in July, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices, after previously suffering three consecutive months of declines.
The index started the financial year off on a positive note with particularly strong gains recorded in a number of sectors that have struggled in recent months.
“The S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology was the star performer amongst Australian sectors in July, jumping 15 per cent, while materials slipped 1 per cent, the sole sector to decline during the month,” said S&P Dow Jones Indices index investment strategy director Benedek Vörös.
Strong gains were seen across the real estate (12.10 per cent), financials (9.28 per cent), consumer discretionary (8.24 per cent) and health care (7.69 per cent) sectors.
Communication services (4.82 per cent), consumer staples (4.47 per cent), industrials (3.54 per cent), utilities (3.13 per cent) and energy (2.12 per cent) were also up for the month.
Despite being the “star performer” of July, information technology is still the worst performing sector year to date with a loss of 27.61 per cent, followed by consumer discretionary (-16.74 per cent), real estate (-13.95 per cent) and communication services (-10.92 per cent).
Energy (33.29 per cent) and utilities (19.70 per cent) were ranked as the top performers of 2022 so far, with consumer staples (0.78 per cent) the only other sector in the black for the year.
Among the major indices, the S&P/ASX Energy Companies index had the month’s highest return of 14.31 per cent, followed by a return of 11.43 per cent for the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries index and 9.18 per cent for the S&P/ASX MidCap 50.
The S&P/ASX 300 (5.95 per cent) edged higher than the S&P/ASX 200, while the S&P/ASX 20 (4.63 per cent), S&P/ASX 50 (4.72 per cent) and S&P/ASX 100 (5.31 per cent) all performed slightly worse.
After July’s positive return, the S&P/ASX 200 is now down 4.75 per cent for the year so far.
Small and micro-cap stocks have fared worse in 2022 with declines of 15.03 per cent for S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries and 17.61 per cent for S&P/ASX Emerging Companies.
