Even though we're already a week into December, it's still worth a look at how some of the ASX's biggest blue chip shares fared over the month just passed. November ended up being a pretty depressing month for ASX investors and the share market. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) went backwards, going from 7,323.7 points at the start of the month to 7,256 points by market close on 30 November – a drop of 0.92%. But how did the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) share price fare?
ANZ has recently claimed the mantle of the third-largest ASX big four bank after the recent share price slump over at Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) made it the 'baby' of the group. So over November, ANZ shares also had a rather dreary month. This bank started the month at $28.14 a share. But by the end, ANZ had closed at a price of $26.70. That's a fall of 5.12%. Ouch. That fall is obviously far greater than that of the ASX 200 itself, making ANZ a market loser over November.
But it's not like the other ASX banks did any better. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price fell around 11% over the same period, while Westpac dropped a shocking 20%. National Australia Bank Ltd. (ASX: NAB) fell a comparatively tame 4.91%.
So what made the last month such a dreadful one for ASX 200 banks like ANZ?
Image source: Getty Images
ANZ share price cops some November rain
Well, the general market sentiment arguably didn't help. Bank shares are normally some of the most cyclical blue chips on the ASX boards, often rising and falling by a greater degree than the broader market. This can be put down to how dependent the banks are on the health of the overall economy.
And we did have some depressing news over the month just gone with the emergence of the Omicron COVID variant. This seemed to spook the ASX, as well as share markets around the world, over November. And the banks, including ANZ, were right in the firing line, it seems.
But there's another reason the ASX share price got caught in some November rain. On 8 November, ANZ shares traded ex-dividend for the upcoming final and fully franked dividend payment of 72 cents a share that investors will receive on 16 December. The value of this chunky dividend left the ANZ share price on the ex-dividend date, so this would have exacerbated ANZ's share price woes over the month.
It wasn't all bad news though. As my Fool colleague James covered in late November, ANZ also received some love from a top ASX broker. Goldman Sachs rated ANZ shares as a 'buy' with a 12-month share price target of $31.82. That would be more than a 16% gain on today's pricing if Goldman is onto something.
At the time of writing, ANZ shares are trading at $27.26 each, up a healthy 0.81% so far today. At this share price, the ASX bank has a trailing dividend yield of 5.21%.
