Positivity returning to sharemarket
A MORE consistently positive performance from shares emerged in 2021 as investors grew more confident that the world would finally start to move past the Covid-19 pandemic.
All sectors except information technology and energy were able to rise in 2021.
Interestingly, tech went from being the best-performing sector in 2020 to the worst in 2021. That was partly because the sector’s biggest stock, Afterpay, effectively became linked to the falling share price of its US acquirer, Block Inc (formerly Square Inc) after
its scrip-based takeover bid.
Afterpay shares fell almost 30 per cent over the year to $83.01.
One of the big Covid winners was Domino’s Pizza, jumping 36 per cent to $118.03 after surging 70 per cent in 2020.
Gains in the travel sector were generally muted by jitters over the impact of successive waves of Covid variants. Qantas shares rose just 3.3 per cent to $5.01 over the year.
Financials went from being one of the worst to one of the best-performing sectors.
Much of that was due to a 20 per cent rise in the banks index as the residential property market surged amid low interest rates and a vastly improved capital position for the banks to restart dividends and share buybacks, although the sector has gone sideways since June.
Commonwealth Bank shares rallied 32 per cent to $101 over the year, but the best performer was National Australia
Bank, up 27.6 per cent at $28.84.
ANZ share rose 21.2 per cent to $27.51 and Westpac added 10.2 per cent to $21.35.
The energy sector disappointed again, mainly because of the underperformance of Woodside, down 3.6 per cent at $21.93 and Santos up just 0.6 per cent at $6.31.
Overall on the ASX 200, the best performer was battery materials supplier Novonix, with its shares soaring 660 per cent to $9.19.
Three of the top 10 – Liontown Resources, up 450 per cent at $1.66, Pilbara Minerals, up 268 per cent at $3.20 and Allkem, up 133 per cent at $10.40 – are lithium plays.