As we enter a new financial year, it was heathcare and technology stocks that led the best sector performance during the full year 2019/20.
During the 2019/20 financial year, there were strong returns in the first half of the year as the ASX 200 continued its bull run. However, there was market chaos in the second half as the COVID-19 pandemic led to a market crash in mid-March and increased uncertainty and volatility.
Over the year, the best-performing sectors were healthcare, which returned 26.4% during the year, and technology which returned 13.6%, according to FE Analytics data.
In the healthcare sector, the best-performing stocks were Fisher & Paykel Healthcare which returned 117%, and Resmed which returned 58%, both of which produced respiratory machines, and biotechnology firm CSL which returned 34%.
CSL announced earlier this year it was working with the University of Queensland on a vaccine for COVID-19.
In the technology space, stocks which performed well included buy-now-pay-later company Afterpay which was up 149%, data centre operator NextDC which returned 50% and accounting software firm Xero up 47%.
However, performance was more nuanced in the technology sector with the strong gains by Afterpay hiding the fact that more than half the sector reported losses. The worst performance was seen by mapping company Nearmap which lost 41% and software logistics firm Wisetech which lost 33%.
