June has been tough for Australian investors. The S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has fallen over 3% for the month and many of our biggest and brightest companies had terrible months! Over the month the Australian dollar was generally steady, crude oil fell a couple of percent, milk prices continued to fall, and the iron ore price rose mildly.
Notable ASX-listed losers in June included South32 Ltd (ASX: S32), which fell 5.5% on Friday alone to take its one-month loss to over 20%, while Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) fell 11% and Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) dropped 10% from above $3.50 to $3.12.
Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) fell a surprising 10%, presumably due to increasing competition in many of the conglomerate's areas of operation, while Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd (ASX: CCL) dropped below $10 for the first time since February.
In the mid-cap space, unsurprisingly Metcash Limited (ASX: MTS) and Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) were two of the worst performers, dropping between 20% and 25% each.
Takeaways?
Aside from general weakness in the share price of many commodities companies, June's worst-performing large-cap stocks were generally unrelated, with stock-specific issues hitting share prices. Look for a strong return from some of these companies in July!
June's Top Stocks
There were really only a handful of mid and large-cap companies that performed well in June. Top performers included Pact Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: PGH) which announced an important acquisition in Cimic Group Ltd (ASX: CIM). While Z Energy Ltd (ASX: ZNZ), a fuel and transport product importer into New Zealand, announced the purchase of some assets from Chevron and continued to make positive progress. All three rose between 10% and 15% and have performed well over the last 12 months, improving by 36%, 17% and 46% respectively.
Interestingly, Sirtex Medical Limited (ASX: SRX) was also one of the better perofrmers for the month, rising nearly 9% and returning to within touching distance of the $30 per share mark!
What does July hold?
We're coming into results season so expect to see some earnings revisions come out from mid and large-cap companies. Underperformers like Flight Centre and SEEK Limited (ASX: SEK) will be punished, so holding stocks with questionable earnings prospects could be painful. Also lookout for quarterly cashflow statements from a number of smaller groups as these will set the scene for the full-year results to be released in August. Tighten your seatbelts!
