Thanks Endless. Half-time round-up: The share market reached...

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    Thanks Endless.

    Half-time round-up:

    The share market reached lunchtime little changed as a strong morning on Asian markets helped offset early jitters following losses on Wall Street on Friday.

    At 1pm the ASX 200 was less than a points or 0.1% lower at 5583 after earlier falling as low as 5559, the index's lowest point in three sessions. Gold stocks +2.1% were the best of the sectors, followed by metals & mining +0.5%, consumer staples +0.3% and materials +0.3%.

    Market sentiment improved as Chinese shares rallied strongly. The Shanghai Composite was lately ahead 2.04%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.92% and Japan's Nikkei 0.47%. Dow futures were recently off 12 points or less than 0.1%.

    “Sentiment has turned in favour of growth and cheap valuations in the Chinese market,” Khiem Do, head of Asian multi-asset strategy at Baring Asset Management, told Bloomberg. Chinese shares have “been lagging for a long time so they’re catching up with world markets.”

    Crude oil futures slumped 32 cents this morning to US$101.57 a barrel. Spot gold was $7.50 weaker at US$1,300.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 93.97 US cents.


    The market is taking its cues from China, rather than Wall Street today. Bodes well for the future if we see a  genuine reappraisal of Chinese prospects. The communist leadership has shown itself surprisingly adept at staving off/averting the hard landing that has long been expected. Meanwhile, gold has fallen pretty hard. Tricky morning's trading at this desk. Got something out of PGL once and went back for more. Less success in BYE - too many holders undercutting each other. Small win in UNX. Was a fraction too slow on TPT, which was the best of the bouncers.
 
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