Key themes were a massive turnaround from the resource giants BHP and Rio Tinto, with both posting excellent results. The major banks also continued their strong performance.

The bottom line is that Australian companies are in good shape. In previous years, with the economy coming out of the global financial crisis, a major focus for businesses has been cost cutting. But as we move into a more positive growth phase, we are seeing strong increases in revenue and profit.

The table below shows the percentage Net Profit after Tax (NPAT) increase/decrease of some of Australia’s leading companies that many Hewison clients have exposure to:

The outlook for 2014 remains positive. However for share prices to continue to rise, we will need to see earnings growth. Therefore stock selection is as important as ever. As always, in order to succeed in the current environment investors need to have a disciplined strategy and stick to it.