The Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) share price surged 10.38% yesterday in another massive day for ASX payments shares. Zip shares closed at $6.07 on Wednesday but exploded to $6.70 at market close yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday’s incredible move means that the Zip share price is now up around 31% since 29 June, just over a week ago.

BNPL, Zip shares rocket ever higher

Zip isn’t the only ASX company making moves in the buy now, pay later (BNPL) space. Other ASX payments shares were also driving ASX investors into a frenzy yesterday. Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL) shares shot up a stupendous 42% just yesterday, whilst Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT) shares have doubled over the past month.

Zip’s arch-rival Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) has also been leaving investors giddy. Fresh from its short-but-sweet capital raising, Afterpay shares were up more than 12% yesterday and hit a share price above $74 in intraday trade. Like Zip, Afterpay is also up around 30% since 29 June. Happy New Financial Year indeed!

BNPL shares have attracted many growth and momentum investors since the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) market low was hit on 23 March this year. On that day, Zip shares bottomed out at $1.05 and Afterpay at $8.01. That means anyone lucky enough to pick up Zip or Afterpay shares on that day would today be looking at a 538% and 826% gain, respectively, on yesterday’s share prices.

Are we in a payments bubble?

It’s hard to see these sorts of share price movements and not think we are now in ‘bubble territory’. Of course, bubbles are usually only completely evident after the inevitable ‘pop’.

So, what do we know right now about ASX payments shares? Yes, they are in a powerful tailwind of shifting consumer preferences. Yes, they are all growing fast (some more than others).

But we don’t know how this sector is going to look in 10 years’ time. Could Zip bulldoze Afterpay? Could Afterpay buy out Openpay Group Ltd (ASX: OPY)? It’s very early days in this space, and right now the market is treating every payment company like they have already achieved domination. I’m sure at least one of the companies named in this article will be a lot larger and a lot more dominant in this field in a decade’s time. But I’m equally certain that not all of them will be.

Foolish takeaway

If you’re absolutely convinced that one of these companies has what it takes to win this game, by all means, continue to invest according to your bullish thesis. But if you’re not sure, perhaps it would be wise to stay on the sidelines and watch this space for now. Missing out on a winner is tough, but losing permanent capital on a failed investment thesis is a lot tougher.

More reading

• Is the Woolworths share price a buy?
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday
• ASX 200 rises 0.6% today, Afterpay share price hits $75
• Why the Saracen share price has soared over 80% higher in the first half of 2020
• The embattled ASX 200 stocks that could deliver a dividend surprise

Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of ZIPCOLTD FPO. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Sezzle Inc. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are a great way to quickly invest into a group of businesses.

Some ETFs have quality business holdings but not much diversification of industry like Betashares Global Cybersecurity ETF (ASX: HACK). Other ones may have acceptable diversification but don’t offer strong growth potential like BetaShares Australia 200 ETF (ASX: A200) (due to the high exposure to large ASX banks).

I think the below two ETFs offer a good combination of growth and diversification:

iShares Global 100 ETF (ASX: IOO)

The biggest businesses in the world didn’t become the largest by having a poor product or having rubbish financials.

This ETF is invested in the biggest 100 businesses in the world. These businesses have spent many years, or many decades, at the top of their industry.

Big businesses have strong economic moats, robust balance sheets and enviable brand power. A good way to think about how strong the moat of a business is how much you’d have to spend building your own business to beat that company. Could you beat Microsoft’s dominance with $10 billion? Or even $100 billion? Google (Alphabet), one of the world’s best tech businesses, has to offer its office products for free to get people to use them over Microsoft.

Here are some of the biggest holdings within the ETF today: Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, JPMorgan Chase and Intel.

There are plenty of large non-US holdings like Nestle, Roche, Samsung, Novartis, Toyota and Astrazeneca.

As you can see, there’s a diverse group of businesses within the ETF. But it has a large allocation to information technology at 28.2%, much higher than the next highest exposure of 15% to consumer discretionary. IT businesses are some of the brightest share prospects because of how the world is going increasingly technological. Tech shares also usually have high profit margins.

Over the past year this ETF has returned 11.80% per annum. The ETF has been around a fairly long time so we can view its longer-term performance – over the past 10 years it has returned an average of 12.57% per annum.

I think this ETF is a great investment option and its management fee is just 0.40% per annum.

BetaShares Global Quality Leaders ETF (ASX: QLTY)

This ETF tracks an index that consists of 150 international shares outside of Australia that have ranked highly for quality.

What does ‘quality’ mean? Shares are ranked using a combination of factors – return on equity (ROE), debt to capital, cash flow generation ability and earning stability.

When you look at businesses through multiple quality screens you will likely end up with a high quality list of shares. The best of the best. Focusing on quality hopefully means producing better long-term returns than other global share benchmarks.

As of this week, the biggest holdings within the ETF are: Adobe, Nvidia, Apple, Accenture, Intuit, Facebook, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, L’Oreal and Alphabet (Google).

This ETF also has a large allocation to IT, the sector had a 34% weighting at the end of May 2020. Healthcare had a 23.6% allocation, consumer discretionary had a 11.3% weighting and industrials had an 11% weighting.

Has it managed to outperform? Well the ETF isn’t that old yet, so we can only look at a short time frame. Over the past year it has made a net return of 18.45%, that’s after the 0.35% management fee. Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF (ASX: VGS) has returned 5.24% over the past year. BetaShares Global Quality Leaders ETF shows a strong return after the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery. 

Foolish takeaway

I really like both of these ETFs. They are the type of investments that could be your only investment holding for many years and perform well. Or they could be used to add high-quality diversification to your existing portfolio.

Out of the two options I’d probably go for BetaShares Global Quality Leaders ETF. Its holdings are high quality, it has a slightly lower management fee than the iShares Global 100 ETF and it owns more shares which should give better diversification.

More reading

• These 3 ASX ETFs are yet to recover from the market crash
• Have $1,000? You should pick one of these 8 ASX shares

Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of BETA CYBER ETF UNITS. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The RPMGlobal Holdings Ltd (ASX: RUL) share price closed trading yesterday up by 3.09% to $1.00, following the announcement of an acquisition by the company.

What was the acquisition?

According to the announcement, RPMGlobal will acquire 100% of Revolution Mining Software, a private company based in Canada. Revolution Mining Software has more than 6 years experience developing and selling its flagship ‘Schedule Optimisation Tool’, which is a mine scheduling optimisation software solution for tier one miners.  

The tool emerged following research from the non-profit organisation Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO). The organisation is based at Laurentian University in Canada and has a reputation for solving complicated mining industry problems. 

According to the announcement, the software is the only strategic financial optimisation tool for underground mines that enables planners to improve productivity and profitability by optimising the net present value (NPV) of the mine schedule.

Commenting on the acquisition, RPMGlobal CEO and managing director Richard Mathews stated:

We are very pleased to have concluded negotiations to to acquire Revolution Mining Software and are really looking forward to welcoming Lorrie and the rest of the Revolution team into the RPM family. We will invest in their industry leading scheduling optimisation tools to deliver innovative solutions that add real value to our customers.

RPM was born from the understanding that mine planning needs to be built on sounds economics and the Revolution Mining product strategy is completely aligned with that core value.

Following the transaction, all of Revolution Mining Software’s employees will move into the RPMGlobal business.

The transaction will be paid for with RPMGlobal’s existing cash reserves and consists of an upfront payment of CAD$500,000, along with a 2 year earn-out agreement. The acquisition is set to be finalised on 31 July 2020.

About the RPMGlobal share price

RPMGlobal has been listed on the ASX since 2008. It is a provider of mining software solutions, advisory services and professional development to the mining industry. RPMGlobal has worked with mining companies in 125 different countries over the last 50 years. 

Last week, RPMGlobal announced that it expects to finish the 2020 financial year with a total contracted value of software subscriptions of $34.5 million. The company also announced that its recurring revenue from software subscriptions was $12.7 million per year.

In the first half of the 2020 financial year, RPMGlobal had revenue of $41.1 million, a 5% decline on the same period in 2019.

The RPMGlobal share price is up 92.3% from its 52 week low of $0.52. It has returned 17.65% since the beginning of the year. The RPMGlobal share price is up 66.67% since this time last year.

More reading

• Zip share price surges 30% in a week. Are we calling bubble yet?
• 2 quality ETFs I’d buy today
• Is the Woolworths share price a buy?
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday
• Why Domino’s and Nanosonics shares could be fantastic buy and hold options

Chris Chitty has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of RungePincockMinarco Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended RungePincockMinarco Limited. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) share price has increased by 11% in the past year. The Woolworths share price gain has significantly outperformed the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), which has seen a 11% fall over the same period.

Woolworths Group owns the largest supermarket in Australia by market share, along with a number of other businesses including Big W, ALH Group and Endeavour Group Limited, which consists of Dan Murphy’s, BWS, Cellarmasters and Langton’s. 

Here’s a closer look at the current supermarket landscape, and whether the Woolworths share price is a buy.

The rise of Aldi

According to Roy Morgan’s Fresh Food and Grocery Report, Woolworths has a 32.9% market share compared to Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL)‘s 26.6% share. However, Aldi’s market share is rapidly rising.

Commenting on the breakdown, Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine stated:

Aldi has increased its market share from 6.7% in 2011, to 12.4% today. While it is still a fair way behind Australia’s two supermarket giants, to put this growth in perspective, Aldi is now approaching half of the market share held by Coles Group.

Aldi’s 12.4% market share puts it at a approximately a third of Woolworths’ market share – growth that must be concerning for Woolworths and Coles.

Financial performance

In its recent trading update released 23 June 2020, Woolworths announced Q4 sales growth to date in its supermarkets in Australia and NZ was up 8.6% and 15.1%, respectively. At that time, Big W and Endeavour drinks sales growth in Q4 had also risen by 27.8% and 21.4%, respectively. In addition, Woolworths highlighted it expects to report earnings before interest and tax of between $3,200 million and $3,250 million, however, this is subject to finalisation and before significant items are taken into account.

The strong sales growth has helped give the share price a boost. However, the sales growth experienced this year could be from the panic buying that is taking place and only be over the short term.   

Furthermore, the group is looking to decrease supply chain costs in the business by developing automated distribution centres in Moorebank Logistics Park, Sydney. This is expected to cost $700–$780 million in technology and fitout over the next 4 years. While this addresses costs in the business, my concern is around whether the sales growth Woolworths has experienced is sustainable over the long term, in what is a very competitive landscape.

Foolish takeaway 

In my view, Woolworths’ market-leading position in the supermarket space could be eroded by the likes of retail giant Aldi over the long term. While groceries are essential items, consumers are offered many choices.

At the current Woolworths share price of $38.21, I personally believe that an investment in the tech space could offer more income and growth over the long term.

More reading

• Zip share price surges 30% in a week. Are we calling bubble yet?
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Friday
• ASX 200 rises 0.6% today, Afterpay share price hits $75
• Why the Saracen share price has soared over 80% higher in the first half of 2020
• The embattled ASX 200 stocks that could deliver a dividend surprise

Motley Fool contributor Matthew Donald has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of COLESGROUP DEF SET and Woolworths Limited. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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On Thursday the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) returned to form and charged higher. The benchmark index climbed 0.6% to 5,955.5 points.

Will the market be able to build on this on Thursday? Here are five things to watch:

ASX 200 expected to slide.

Weakness on Wall Street overnight looks likely to weigh on the ASX 200 index on Friday. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 0.5% or 28 points lower this morning. Overnight the Dow Jones sank 1.4%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.55%, and the Nasdaq defied the rest with a 0.5% gain.

Tech shares on watch.

It could be a good day of trade for Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) and other tech shares after their U.S. counterparts charged higher overnight. Investors were piling into tech shares again, leading to the Nasdaq index racing to a new record high. Tech behemoth Amazon was the star of the show, rising 3.3% to an all-time high. It now has a market capitalisation comfortably above US$1.5 trillion.

Oil prices sink.

Energy producers such as Oil Search Limited (ASX: OSH) and Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) are likely to come under pressure on Friday after a pullback in oil prices. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price has fallen 3.3% to US$39.54 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price dropped 2.2% to US$42.33 a barrel. Traders appear concerned that a spike in coronavirus cases could impact oil demand.

Gold price rally runs out of steam.

Gold miners Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) could end the week in a subdued fashion after the gold price softened. According to CNBC, the spot gold price fell 0.75% to US$1,807.30 an ounce. Investors appear to have been taking profit after some strong gains by the precious metal.

Evolution and Regis downgraded.

Also on watch today will be gold miners Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN) and Regis Resources Limited (ASX: RRL). This morning analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded their shares to sell ratings on valuation grounds. The broker has a $4.60 price target on Evolution shares and a $4.10 price target on Regis shares. This is notably lower than where their shares trade today.

More reading

• ASX 200 rises 0.6% today, Afterpay share price hits $75
• Why the Saracen share price has soared over 80% higher in the first half of 2020
• The embattled ASX 200 stocks that could deliver a dividend surprise
• Is the Telstra share price a buy?
• Afterpay share price jumps 14% to new record high

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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I’m a big fan of buy and hold investing and feel very fortunate to have such a large number of quality companies with positive long term outlooks at my disposal on the Australian share market.

Two top ASX shares that I think would be fantastic buy and hold investments are listed below. Here’s why I would snap them up today:

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP)

I think this pizza chain operator would be a great buy and hold investment option. Although the company has thousands of stores across Europe, the ANZ region, and Japan, it has no plans to stop its expansion any time soon.

Management intends to grow its global store network by 7% to 9% per annum for the next 3 to 5 years. It is also targeting same store sales growth of 3% to 6% per annum over the same period. If it delivers on both these targets, it should lead to solid profit growth over the medium term.

Nanosonics Ltd (ASX: NAN)

Another quality buy and hold option for investors to consider is Nanosonics. At present the infection prevention specialist generates all its revenue from its trophon EPR disinfection system for ultrasound probes. While this product still has a long runway for growth, the company is intending to diversify its offering in the near future with several new product launches.

Not a lot is known about these secretive new products, other than they are targeting unmet needs and the first product has a similar market opportunity to the trophon EPR product. If these products are a success, then the company’s earnings growth could be explosive over the 2020s. In light of this, I think there’s a very strong chance that the Nanosonics share price will smash the market over the next decade.

More reading

• Why it’s time to rotate out of JB Hi-Fi share price and these popular ASX stocks: Macquarie
• Goldman Sachs names the ASX retail shares to buy and the ones to avoid
• Why I would buy Nanosonics and these ASX growth shares
• Why Adbri, Domino’s, Event, & Viva Energy shares are dropping lower
• 3 innovative ASX shares to buy

James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of Nanosonics Limited. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited and Nanosonics Limited. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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