The ASX 200 stocks hitting 52-week highs and lows this week: Tech, Retail and Real Estate

Welcome back to the 52-week Series – a recap of ASX 200 stocks marking yearly highs and lows in the past week.

# Highs and lows by sector

Note: Data as at Tuesday, 22 August close

• Technology – 6 highs, 2 lows

• Discretionary – 5 highs, 0 lows

• Materials – 3 highs, 7 lows

• Financials – 3 highs, 2 lows

• Healthcare – 2 highs, 4 lows

• Staples – 2 highs, 2 lows

• Industrials – 1 high, 2 lows

• Real Estate – 1 high, 10 lows

• Utilities – 1 high, 0 lows

Stocks Making 52-week Highs

Key themes and takeaways:

• Technology stocks are living up to the hype with solid earnings across the board (minus a few weaker-than-expected ones from Wisetech and Data#3)

  • Altium FY23 earnings came broadly ahead of estimates on customer wins and improved revenue guidance

  • Carsales posted a double beat for FY23 and said it expects to deliver 'very strong growth' in revenue and EBITDA for FY24

  • Life360 narrowed its Q2 loss to $4.4m from a $33m loss a year ago, reaffirmed subscription growth of more than 50% year-on-year for the full year

  • Megaport preannounced its FY23 results so there was largely no surprises there but its FY24 guidance was well-ahead of expectations

• Retailers are also surprising to the upside despite recent retail sales trends (e.g. Australian retail volumes fell 0.5% in the June quarter 2023, marking a third straight quarter of declines).

• Rotation on soft landing hopes: Based on share price reactions recently, the market seems to want to rotate to early cycle sectors such as Building Materials and Retail as slowing inflation and the RBA pause seem to support positioning for a soft landing.

Stocks Making 52-week Lows

Key themes and takeaways:

• The bulk of the list is comprised of reporting season losers (including ASX, Ansell and ResMed), down-trending stocks that are failing to bounce (including Core Lithium, Sayona and Syrah Resources) and real estate stocks

• Real estate is experiencing a sector-wide decline. Most REITs are posting statutory losses in FY23 reflecting sharp fair valuation losses on properties due to softening capitalisation rates

  • Is there any value in the sector: Commenting on Charter Hall, Citi said "There are some risks, but we do see the stock as cheap at these levels, especially given a strong portfolio and management track record, with the potential for stability in rates to kick-start market transaction activity and FUM growth."