Here’s what the ASX 200 market sectors looked like last week

Consumer staples shares led ASX 200 market sectors last week, rising 1.02% over five trading days.

Meanwhile, S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) lost 0.91% and ended the week at 7,701.7 points.

Six of the 11 market sectors ended the week in green.

Let’s summarize.

Consumer staples led the ASX sectors last week

The largest range of ASX consumer products Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) last week it increased by 0.57%. Woolworths shares closed at $31.60 on Friday.

Other large sector players include: Coles Group Limited (ASX: COL) shares rose 1.48% to $16.42 each.

ASX 200 share of blame State Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE) lost 1.95% to end the week at $11.33 per share.

Endeavor Group Limited (ASX:EDV) shares lost 0.6% for the week to end at $4.96 on Friday.

Among the biggest changes in the staples sector this week was: Australian Agricultural Company Ltd (ASX:AAC). Shares rose 7.8% despite the lack of price-sensitive news and settled at $1.52 a share on Friday.

ASX 200 agricultural blade Choose Harvests Ltd (ASX: SHV) rose 4.47% to $3.27. Most of these increases occurred on Friday, after the company published its results for the first half of 2024.

The almond grower and processor posted a net profit after tax loss (NPAT) of $2.1 million. However, this represents an improvement compared to the same period in the first half of FY23, which recorded a loss of $96.2 million.

Select Harvests managing director David Surveyor said:

The operating environment for the almond industry remains challenging. In the USA, since the 2020/21 season, almond prices have remained below production costs.

During this period, Select has made significant progress in implementing its transformation program and is poised to benefit from the cyclical recovery.

The Bega Cheese Ltd (ASX:BGA) share price rose 2.76% in five days to $4.46 on Friday.

There was no news from Bega this week. However, my colleague Bernd says the price increase may be related to speculation that milk prices may fall in the coming months, thus reducing Bega’s production costs.

Ridley Corporation Ltd (ASX:RIC) rose 1.94% to $2.10. There was no news from the company this week.

Top broker Goldman Sachs says its main buy calls on ASX retail shares are currently towards consumer staples rather than discretionary shares.

Goldman has buy ratings on three of the four largest consumer stocks by market capitalization.

These include Woolworths shares with a 12-month price target of $39.40, Treasury Wine shares with a 12-month price target of $13, and Endeavor shares with a 12-month price target of $6.30.

ASX 200 market sector snapshot

According to CommSec data, here’s what the 11 market sectors looked like last week.

Within five trading days:

S&P/ASX200 market sector	Change last week
Consumer essentials (ASX:XSJ)	1.02%
Consumer discretionary (ASX:XDJ)	0.83%
Communication (ASX:XTJ)	0.59%
Information technology (ASX:XIJ)	0.26%
Healthcare (ASX:XHJ)	0.15%
THESE ARE (ASX:XPJ)	0.09%
Financial (ASX:XFJ)	(0.26%)
Industry (ASX:XNJ)	(0.35%)
Energy (ASX:XEJ)	(0.6%)
Materials (ASX:XMJ)	(1.35%)
Tools (ASX:XUJ)	(2.73%)