Consumer staple shares led the ASX 200 market sectors last week with a 1.02% gain over the five trading days.
Meantime, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) lost 0.91% to finish the week at 7,701.7 points.
Six of the 11 market sectors finished the week in the green.
Let's recap.
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Consumer staple shares led the ASX sectors last week
The biggest ASX consumer staple stock Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) moved 0.57% higher last week. Woolworths shares closed at $31.60 on Friday.
Among the other large sector players, Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) shares lifted 1.48% to $16.42 apiece.
ASX 200 wine share Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) lost 1.95% to finish the week at $11.33 apiece.
Endeavour Group Ltd (ASX: EDV) shares lost 0.6% over the week to finish at $4.96 on Friday.
Among the big movers in the staples sector this week was Australian Agricultural Company Ltd (ASX: AAC). The stock rose 7.8% despite no price-sensitive news to finish at $1.52 per share on Friday.
ASX 200 agricultural share Select Harvests Ltd (ASX: SHV) lifted 4.47% to $3.27. Most of those gains came on Friday after the company released its 1H FY24 results.
The almond farmer and processor reported a net profit after tax (NPAT) loss of $2.1 million. But this was an improvement on the prior corresponding period of 1H FY23 when a $96.2 million loss was recorded.
Select Harvests managing director David Surveyor said:
The operating environment for the almond industry remains challenging. In the US, almond prices have been below the cost of production since the 2020/21 season.
Through this period, Select has made strong progress on its transformational program and is ready to benefit from the cyclical upturn.
The Bega Cheese Ltd (ASX: BGA) share price increased 2.76% over the five days to $4.46 on Friday.
There was no news from Bega this week. However, my colleague Bernd says the price surge could relate to speculation that milk prices may fall over the months ahead, thereby reducing Bega's input costs.
Ridley Corporation Ltd (ASX: RIC) rose 1.94% to $2.10. There was no news from the company this week.
Top broker Goldman Sachs says its key buy calls among ASX retail shares are now skewed towards consumer staples over discretionary stocks.
Goldman has buy ratings on three of the top four consumer staple shares by market capitalisation.
They are Woolworths shares with a 12-month price target of $39.40, Treasury Wine shares with a 12-month price target of $13, and Endeavour shares with a 12-month price target of $6.30.
ASX 200 market sector snapshot
Here's how the 11 market sectors stacked up last week, according to CommSec data.
Over the five trading days:
| S&P/ASX 200 market sector | Change last week |
| Consumer Staples (ASX: XSJ) | 1.02% |
| Consumer Discretionary (ASX: XDJ) | 0.83% |
| Communication (ASX: XTJ) | 0.59% |
| Information Technology (ASX: XIJ) | 0.26% |
| Healthcare (ASX: XHJ) | 0.15% |
| A-REIT (ASX: XPJ) | 0.09% |
| Financials (ASX: XFJ) | (0.26%) |
| Industrials (ASX: XNJ) | (0.35%) |
| Energy (ASX: XEJ) | (0.6%) |
| Materials (ASX: XMJ) | (1.35%) |
| Utilities (ASX: XUJ) | (2.73%) |
