ASX industrials led the ASX 200 market sectors last week with a 0.67% gain over the five trading days.
It was a volatile week with the ASX 200 spiralling 1.11% lower on Thursday.
This was due to Magnificent Seven stocks Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) disappointing Wall Street with their earnings reports overnight on Wednesday.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) limped forward by just 0.087% over the week to finish at 7,921.3 points on Friday.
Only four of the 11 market sectors finished the week in the green.
Let's review.
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Industrials led the ASX market sectors last week
Among the sector's big players, Transurban Group (ASX: TCL) shares lost 0.39% to close at $12.72 apiece on Friday.
During the week, the toll road operator announced plans to expand the Logan Motorway in South-East Queensland.
Brambles Ltd (ASX: BXB) shares rose by 1.27% to finish at $15.10 on Friday. The Reece Ltd (ASX: REH) share price rose by 3.17% to finish at $26.98. Neither company released any news last week.
The Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) share price lifted 1.35% to $6.05 on Friday. Jed Richards, senior advisor at Shaw and Partners, has a buy rating on Qantas shares and says there are four reasons to invest.
Computershare Ltd (ASX: CPU) shares lifted 5.12% to finish at $27.50 per share on Friday.
Morgan Stanley recently retained its overweight rating on Computershare but trimmed its 12-month price target to $29.40. The broker expects the company to announce another sizeable buyback during earnings season next month. The latest daily notification reveals Computershare has purchased more than 14.4 million shares since the current buyback began in August 2023.
Seven Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: SVW) shares rose by 2.27% to close on Friday at $37.89 apiece.
Despite major share price growth of 52.9% in FY24, which made Seven the No. 1 stock in the industrials sector for the year, Barrenjoey sees more growth ahead. The broker recently raised its rating on Seven shares to overweight with a 12-month share price target of $40.
The ALS Ltd (ASX: ALQ) share price lifted 2.74% to finish the week at $14.99.
On Thursday, ALS said legal proceedings against a wholly-owned subsidiary had begun, and it would vigorously defend claims by Korea Midland Power Co. Ltd of losses attributable to alleged discrepancies in the certified attributes of four coal shipments between May 2018 and May 2019.
Auckland International Airport Limited (ASX: AIA) shares fell 3.29% over the week to finish at $6.76 on Friday. Infratil Ltd (ASX: IFT) shares fell by 0.1% to close at $9.72 apiece.
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 |
| Industrials (ASX: XNJ) | 0.67% |
| Financials (ASX: XFJ) | 0.33% |
| Healthcare (ASX: XHJ) | 0.13% |
| Consumer Discretionary (ASX: XDJ) | 0.05% |
| Consumer Staples (ASX: XSJ) | (0.55%) |
| Materials (ASX: XMJ) | (1.09%) |
| Information Technology (ASX: XIJ) | (1.14%) |
| Communication (ASX: XTJ) | (1.26%) |
| Utilities (ASX: XUJ) | (1.44%) |
| A-REIT (ASX: XPJ) | (2.78%) |
| Energy (ASX: XEJ) | (5.6%) |
