It's been an interesting day for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) and many ASX 200 shares this Friday, to say the least.
Investors don't seem to know what they want today, with the index spending time in both positive and negative territory so far this session. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is nursing a slight loss, down 0.03% at around 8,518 points.
However, this market indecisiveness hasn't stopped a raft of ASX 200 shares from minting fresh new 52-week highs (and all-time record highs in some cases) today.
Let's check them out.
Ten ASX 200 shares at new 52-week highs this Friday
Here are the ten ASX 200 shares that have hit new 52-week highs this session:
| ASX 200 stock |
New 52-week high* | Current share price* |
Current gain for day* |
|
Commonwealth Bank of Australia |
$162.98 | $162.55 | (0.05%) |
|
National Australia Bank Ltd |
$40.69 | $40.53 | 0.37% |
|
Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) |
$34.17 | $34.09 | 0.25% |
|
REA Group Ltd (ASX: REA) |
$266.44 | $261.49 | 2.58% |
|
ALS Ltd (ASX: ALQ) |
$17.01 | $16.77 | 1.57% |
|
Harvey Norman Group Holdings |
$5.37 | $5.33 | 0.28% |
|
Insignia Financial Ltd (ASX: IFL) |
$4.65 | $4.62 | 0.43% |
|
Codan Ltd (ASX: CDA) |
$17.17 | $17.05 | 1.10% |
|
Emerald Resources N.L. |
$4.52 | $4.43 | 0.11% |
|
Helia Group Ltd (ASX: HLI) |
$4.97 | $4.93 | 0.30% |
*at the time of writing
What can we learn from these new 52-week highs?
Well, the obvious pattern to point out here is that we have three out of the four major ASX 200 bank shares hitting new 52-week highs today.
These are not mere 52-week highs though. Commonwealth Bank's high is also yet another new record, as we dove into here.
Yesterday, we discussed what was then a new 52-week high for NAB, but also the highest that ASX 200 bank share has traded at in more than 18 years. Yep, you'd have to go back to pre-global financial crisis 2007 to find the last time NAB shares were commanding their current share price.
With Westpac, the bank's new 52-week high today is also the highest the company has traded at since 2017. So today is indeed a momentous day for ASX 200 bank shares. One does have to feel a little sorry for ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ), which has done nothing of note today.
The other ASX 200 share that is worth a deeper dive into is property company REA Group.
REA shares slumped yesterday despite the company posting a bumper half-year earnings report. Although REA put up some impressive numbers, including a 20% rise in revenues and a 26% surge in net profits, investors were evidently dismayed with the news that CEO Owen Wilson (no relation to the actor) is set to depart.
It seems investors have gotten over that news pretty quickly, though, with the ASX 200 share surging to its new record high today.
