Toxic WiseTech Falls -18.4% on Human Trafficking Probe. Meanwhile Gold Defies Broader Market Softness.
Paper Mandate Market & Portfolio Commentary | 22 June 2026
Fund Status:
Bal Start: $1,213,960
Bought None
Sold: WTC
Bal End: $1,192,374
Cash: $127,839
Overnight Markets
The US market was closed on Friday for Juneteenth, so no market influence from Friday. However, Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed again on Saturday over Israeli strikes in Lebanon, the US military denied any closure. In other parts of the world, Japan was up +1.56%, DAX was down -0.16%. In the pre-market ASX news, WiseTech CEO Richard White is under investigation regarding human trafficking, so expect the stock to sink fast.
Australian Market
At the close of the Aussie market, both the ASX200 & ASX300 were down -0.14%, and -0.16% respectively. Relatively flat. The Gold Index (XGD), however, rallied +1.83%, a strange end to the day given it fell on open. Technology was the biggest loser (-4.20%) by a country mile, with Healthcare looking muted by comparison (-1.30%). There was no one big performer, Discretionary (+0.56%), Financials (+0.50%) , and Industrials (+0.48%) all had soft gains.
Portfolio Commentary
The portfolio dropped -1.74% while the ASX300 was only slightly down -0.16%. The underperformance was driven primarily by the selling of WiseTech. We luckily sold early at $34 before to stock continue to fall, finishing at $30 for the day (-18.44% down). Given the allegation of human trafficking, this is a serious probe into the CEO and breaks the thesis regardless of any upside. Until news that the probe finds nothing, the stock will be in the “toxic” bucket. Guilty until proven innocent.
Aside from selling WTC at a loss, other detractors from the portfolio were; XRO -4.5% (Software), C79 -4.3% (Gold), and BVS -2.8% (Software). Coming in to defend the portfolio with gains was: OBM +6.6% (Gold), SYL +5.5% (Industrials), and SKS +3.7% (Tech). The portfolio value is currently up 4.48% month to date versus the +0.95% month to date for the ASX300.
We can see the greatest gains from today came from Materials, where we are underweight and Industrials. Fortunately the largest overweight to Tech did not hurt the portfolio that much after selling WiseTech.
Investment Activity
Disclaimer: This is a paper portfolio. Content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research.