ASX Winners and Losers of 2017

The presents have been given, the Christmas pudding has settled, and wine bottles have run dry. It’s this time of year that we take stock of what’s in the review mirror and plan for what lies ahead. In particularly, I like to see what the ASX winners and losers of 2017 were and how hard my money worked for me last year.

We have provided a little commentary and some key focus points on the year that has been and compiled a list of the top 10 winners and losers on the ASX below for 2017.

• Both indices traded sideways for most of the year, but rose sharply in the December quarter with the S&P/ASX200 up by 6.8 per cent and the All Ordinaries index up by 8.5 per cent, respectively – the best quarterly performance since March 2015.
• US President Donald Trump unveiled the details of his US$1.5 trillion tax plan on September 27 which propelled US share markets to record highs into year-end. The positive tone on Wall Street rubbed off on Aussie investors with the S&P/ASX200 reaching near 10-year highs of 6,075.6 points on December 20. Earlier in December, the index passed the 6,000 point threshold for the first time since the start of the global financial crisis.
• Investors also drew encouragement from the Trump Administration’s and Republican-led Congress’ push to slash US corporate taxes, roll back regulations and enact other pro-business policies. The US Congress passed the tax bill in late December, which reduces corporate taxes from 35 percent to 21 percent.
• Of the 22 sub-industry sectors in the S&P/ASX200 index, all but four lifted over 2017. The Household & Personal products sector was the best performer on the Australian market (up 45 per cent) from Capital goods (up 43 per cent). The worst performer was Telecommunications (down almost 27 per cent) from Retailing (down 13 per cent). The MidCap50 was the strongest size category (up 18 per cent) from the Small Ordinaries (up 16 per cent).
• The emergence of new Chinese consumers and the ‘Dining Boom’ for high quality Australian produce drove many local stocks. Food, wine and infant product markets, along with battery component makers for electric cars, performed strongly.
• A2 Milk was the strongest performer on the S&P/ASX200 rising by 261.3 per cent in 2017, driven by Chinese regulatory changes, which boosted baby formula demand for Australian and New Zealand producers.

As always, if you would like more information or would like to discuss your investments with me, please feel free to get in touch!

Kind regards,

Nick Lucey BAppEc (financial planning)
Director | Financial Adviser
Nest Advisory Group