Local market pushes ahead

Despite recent fluctuations in the market nationally, the resources-led Western Australian economy continues to demonstrate its resilience.

The most recent Deloitte WA stock Exchange Index shows the market capitalisation of WA companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange topped $100 billion for the first time, reaching $103.2 billion at April 30.

While the figures do not take into account recent adjustments, whereby the ASX All Ordinaries index lose some of its momentum this month, they still provide strong evidence of the buoyant state of the WA market relative to the rest of the country.     

The Deloitte WA Index is a regular review of WA stocks and indices, and it increased by 5.4 per cent in April, more than double the growth of the All Ordinaries, which grew by 2.4 per cent.

And, for the 12 months to April 30, market capitalisation of WA-based ASX-listed companies grew by 58 per cent, outstripping the performance of the All Ordinaries, which grew 32.1 per cent.

According to the Deloitte report, since its inception in May 2000, the market capitalisation of listed WA companies has increased by 225 per cent.

It comes as no surprise that the increase in market capitalisation of local companies has been driven by the mining sector.

WA mining sector companies were the main contributors to the growth of the Deloitte index, adding $2.8 billion in market capitalisation in April.

For the 12-month period to the end of April, the mining sector recorded an increase of over 10 per cent in the index. And, to further emphasise the relative weight of the mining sector to the WA market, since 2000, listed WA mining companies in the index have increased by a staggering 473 per cent.

The Deloitte WA Index is compiled from publicly available information provided by the ASX and Bloomberg on the market capitalisation of each WA-listed company. Company information is extracted from the above sources then added together to provide a cumulative market capitalisation figure for all WA companies.