Big stocks perform poorly; KPMG under investigation; T-Rex up for auction
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Welcome to Fear and Greed, business news you can use. Today, some of the country's biggest stocks are also among the worst performers 11 months into the financial year. The corporate regulator launches a formal inquiry into KPMG over the use of a client's confidential board papers and Sotheby's is set to auction a 67 million year old Tyrannosaurus Rex. Plus, the battle for energy heats up. And Australia's incarceration rates soar. It is Monday, the 8th of June, 2026. I'm Michael Thompson. And good morning, Sean Aylmer. Good morning, Michael.
Why are some of the biggest stocks performing poorly in 2026?
Bit of a short show this morning, Sean, with most of the country enjoying the King's holiday weekend.
Not us, Michael.
Well, we're enjoying it because we're here at Fear and Greed having a great time. Plus, we get to talk about selling off old fossils.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
A cracking story coming up a bit later on in the show. Love a good dinosaur story on fear and greed. But the main story this morning, Sean, five of the 10 worst performing stocks on the ASX 200 over the last year are large caps, companies that are or were top 50 stocks at the beginning of the financial year. The overweighting of poorly performing large caps has shifted the makeup of the ASX with financials and commodities stocks more dominant than ever. Over the past year, one-time large cap Cochlear is down a whopping 65%. While WiseTech Global and one-time market leader CSL are down more than 60%, Xero, which is off more than 50%, and ProMedicus, which has fallen more than 40% over the past year, and the other two large caps that have certainly been pummeled, these are massive, massive moves for such big companies.
Very unusual to have five really large caps among the stocks that have fallen most over the 11-month period. And, of course, we're coming into the end of the financial year, so we're starting to get very interested in what this means for our superannuation accounts, all that sort of thing. The reasons vary. The tech companies have suffered from the threat of AI disrupting their business models. The healthcare companies disappointed, generally being re-rated by investors, particularly at Cochlear and CSL. At the other end of the performance tables, lithium player PLS. We used to call it Pilbara Minerals, name changed to PLS, up more than 400%. Over the past year, now a top 50 stock. Linus Rare Earths, more than doubled.
It too has shifted into the top 50. But Michael... The biggest moves in dollar terms have come from Australia's two biggest miners, BHP and Rio Tinto. Surging copper prices have helped both share prices rise. Now, iron ore prices came off a bit at the end of last week. They weren't so strong Thursday, Friday. Notwithstanding that, over the last year, BHP is up more than 60%. Rio, almost 70%. Put that in dollar terms. BHP's added about $190 billion in value.
What is the KPMG investigation about and why does it matter?
Rio's added $40 billion in value. It may seem like a big difference. Remember, Rio is also listed on the London Stock Exchange. So a big chunk of its worth is on the London Stock Exchange. So you have to add the two together to see the true size of Rio. But quite phenomenal how the critical minerals companies and the big miners have done so incredibly well over the past 12 months. Whereas some very large healthcare stocks, tech stocks, haven't done so well.
I think I preferred PLS when it was Pilbara Minerals. You know how it kind of tells you exactly what the company does. Having said that, the name change seems to have worked.
It does.
I don't know necessarily whether there was actually a link between the name change, but hey, we can't rule it out. Look, these are massive changes, as we discussed. What does it mean then for the makeup of the very largest indices on the ASX, like the top 10 and the top 20?
So in short, it means the local market is even more weighted to financials and resources. Eight of the top nine stocks in the Bourse are either financials or miners. The odd one out is Wesfarmers, which actually has a mining department anyway. The market cap of the top 200 stocks, the top 200 is worth $2.9 trillion.
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