Investors who poured their savings into tech stocks quadrupled their money by 2024.
ZipCo was Australia’s best performer this year, with its share price rising 364 per cent, from 64 cents to $2.97.
That means someone who had invested $10,000 in these stocks would have turned it into a windfall of $46,400.
Is The top performer status on the Australian stock market is a marked change from 2022, when it fell from $4.33 to just 51 cents, after rival Afterpay rose.
Online trading platform Moomoo chief commercial officer Michael McCarthy said investors now viewed Zipco as a known quantity in the buy now, pay later space.
“Zip is now seen as the cleanest player,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘It is attracting funds; I also think he had fallen behind the others for quite some time.
“In fact, he had performed poorly when others were doing well.”
Investors who poured their savings into tech stocks quadrupled their money by 2024 (pictured, the Australian Stock Exchange in Sydney)
ZipCo was Australia’s best performer this year, with its share price rising 364 per cent, from 64 cents to $2.97.
Technology and healthcare stocks occupied the top five positions this year, with Life360, Sigma Healthcare, Pro Medicus and Telix Pharma dominating the honors list.
McCarthy said an aging population underpinned the stratospheric rise in healthcare stocks.
“Healthcare has been a favorite sector for a long time; it’s all about demographics,” he said.
“The idea that an aging population will continue to drive growth in healthcare delivery has been around for a long time.”
McCarthy said investors were especially embracing tech stocks if they used the product themselves with Life360, a family safety and location-sharing app, up 201 percent from $7.56 to $22.77.
“I think a lot of Life360 shareholders are actually app users and they like the service they get – that’s a big theme in the market right now,” he said.
Pharmacy chain Sigma Healthcare, which owns Amcal and is merging with Chemist Warehouse, was the third best performer, with its share price rising 163 percent, from $1 to $2.63.
“They are seen as potentially benefiting from the partnership between the two major players in the market,” McCarthy said.
Pharmacy chain Sigma Healthcare, which owns Amcal and is merging with Chemist Warehouse, was the third best performer, with its share price rising 163 percent, from $1 to $2.63.
“Sigma is seen as a potential beneficiary of that big merger.”
Pro Medicus, Australia’s top performer during the 2023-24 financial year, when it doubled in value, performed even better in 2024.
The medical imaging company’s stock price soared 166 percent this year, from $95.83 to $254.66.
Telix Pharmaceuticals rounded out the top five, also more than doubling as its share price rose 146 percent, from $10.08 to $24.83.
Australia’s best-performing shares have far outperformed the broader share market, with the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index up 7.6 per cent over the past year to 8,215 points.
The Australian Stock Exchange hit a record high in early December, and Commonwealth Bank and Westpac soared by a third in 2024 as investors forgot about the banking royal commission.
“That heavy weight on the banks and their very strong performance this year was one of the biggest contributors to the overall market rally,” he said.
But the market has since retreated 3.3%, after losing $50 billion in one day as investors feared the U.S. Federal Reserve would not cut interest rates as deeply as previously thought.
Investors are embracing tech stocks if they used the product themselves with Life360, an app to see where their loved ones are, up 201 percent from $7.56 to $22.77.
“It’s not surprising that when the world seems to be changing in that sense, as countries start to go their own way, that it has a big impact on stock markets,” McCarthy said.
But McCarthy said investors were already excited about US President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House on January 20, despite his threat to impose 60 percent tariffs on China, because they saw him as a pro-business leader.
“There are certainly tax cuts on the table, proposed during the campaign; that’s one of the determining factors,” he said.
‘A corporate tax cut would obviously be positive for businesses and would stimulate the US economy.
“I hate to say The Castle with you, but I think it’s mostly a sense that they’ve elected a pro-business administration and that whatever happens, there will be an overall positive effect on the American economy.”
As for 2025, McCarthy said heavily embattled mining stocks such as BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue could have a good year if the Treasury is proven wrong and the price of iron ore, the commodity used to make steel, does not. falls back to $60. per ton, below levels above $100 per ton, as a result of China’s real estate crisis.
“The forecast track record for iron ore prices is poor, including Treasury estimates,” he said.
McCarthy expects the Australian stock market to reach new peaks in 2025, but with a bumpy road ahead.
“After a year where we have had repeat highs and there is very clear momentum, overall it seems more likely that we will see new all-time highs at some point, possibly even in the first quarter of next year.” said.