See what's happening beneath the surface. Understand when the market is genuinely strong versus when gains are concentrated in just a few names.
The index tells you where the market finished the day. It doesn't tell you how it got there. Market breadth does — it measures how many stocks are actually participating in a move, rather than just the handful of large caps that can carry an index higher on their own. A rally backed by broad participation across hundreds of stocks behaves very differently to one propped up by a few index heavyweights.
That gap between the index and the stocks underneath it is one of the oldest warning signs in markets. When breadth deteriorates while the index keeps making new highs — fewer stocks above their moving averages, fewer sectors and themes joining in — it's often a sign the advance is narrowing well before the index itself turns down. Tracking breadth daily gives you an early read on whether strength is broad-based or fragile.
The core breadth reading is simple: what percentage of ASX stocks are trading above their key moving averages? We track this daily across the market as a whole, and break it down further by GICS sector — so instead of one blunt number, you can see exactly which sectors are driving participation and which are dragging on it. A market where 70% of stocks sit above their 50-day average behaves very differently to one where that figure has slipped to 30%, even if the index itself looks unchanged.
This is where we go further than any other ASX tool. Alongside the standard market and sector breadth reads, we compute breadth across our 63 curated investment themes — gold, uranium, AI, defence and dozens more — and present it as a box chart so participation is visible at a glance. You can immediately see when gold stocks are breaking out while lithium languishes, or when defence names are firming up while the broader market chops sideways. GICS sectors are too coarse to show this kind of rotation; theme-level breadth catches it.
Breadth is mainly used to confirm or question what the index is telling you. If the index and breadth are both rising together, that's a healthy, broad-based advance worth trusting. If the index keeps climbing while breadth quietly rolls over, that's a narrow rally carried by a small group of stocks — a classic setup for a sharper-than-expected pullback once those leaders tire. On the way down, improving breadth while the index is still falling can be an early sign that selling pressure is fading. Traders use these divergences to decide when to press positions harder and when to start protecting gains, well before the index confirms the shift on its own.
Stocks above key moving averages, broken down by the overall market and by GICS sector, plus our theme-level breadth box chart across all 63 curated investment themes.
Daily, once the day's market data lands after the ASX close — every breadth reading reflects the latest completed trading session.
No. Market breadth data is provided for general information only and isn't a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
General information only, not financial advice —see full disclaimer.
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