Thanks Britnee and morning regulars. Half-time round-up:...

Thanks Britnee and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

Australian shares overcame falling resource stocks and news of weak business conditions to advance to a fresh two-month high this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 34 points or 0.6% ahead at 5535 and on track for a fourth straight rise as trading resumed following the Australia Day long weekend. The rise came as strength in consumer stocks (discretionary +1.8%, staples +1.4%), financials (+0.8%) and telecoms (+1.3%) outweighed weakness in gold -2.5%, metals & mining -1.7%, materials -0.9% and energy -1.5%.

The gains came as international investors anticipated a likely compromise over Greece's national debt between hte new incoming government and international lenders.

“The new government, its various investors/creditors and the European Central Bank will work together to avoid disaster,” Scott Schuberg, chief executive officer at Rivkin Securities, told Bloomberg. “Greece has just elected a party that will commit to tax cuts and more public spending. It’s going to need outside investors. To prove itself as economically hostile toward foreign investors would send its economy back to the Stone Age.”

Business conditions declined for a second month during December, according to NAB's monthly survey. Conditions eased one point to +4. Confidence edged up less than a point to +2.

China's Shanghai Composite slipped 0.16%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.16% and Japan's Nikkei rose 1.4%. Dow futures were recently 0ff two points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures improved three cents this morning to US$45.18 a barrel. Spot gold was $4 weaker at US$1,275.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 79.25 US cents.


An odd session with some fairly large movements in both directions. Pretty impressive that the index can rise this  much with BHP, RIO, WPL and NCM pulling in the wrong direction. Trading: as usual I've been playing around the fringes of pullbacks with mixed results. Got the low in AJX, but not enough shares to really capitalise. Got interested in PYL and SLR when the selldowns reached 20% - when the trading range is that wide, even a small recovery will pay well. At least, that's the theory. PYL has come good. SLR threatening. Only need a pip or two with the sort of leverage some of these shares offer.