Thanks Beany and morning regulars. Half-time round-up: A...

Thanks Beany and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

A combination of weak commodity prices and end-of-quarter profit-taking pushed the share market sharply lower this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 80 points or 1.35% weaker at 5840 and on track for its second drop of more than 1% in three sessions since the index failed to crack the 6000 mark last week. A broad sell-off left all sectors lower as institutional traders booked gains ahead of the end of the quarter at close of business tomorrow. Energy -4.2%, metals & mining -1.9%, materials -1.6% and gold -1.6% absorbed the brunt of the selling, but many yield sectors, including financials, were also off at least 1%.

The mood was brighter on Asian markets, where China's Shanghai Composite put on 0.8%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.21% and Japan's Nikkei 0.31%. Dow futures were recently five points or less than 0.1% lower.

Crude oil futures skidded another 27 cents or 0.5% this morning to US$48.61 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.70 softer at US$1,194.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.22 US cents.


Gnarly session. The swings on the index are getting larger, a possible hint that a big move is pending. Not that you should read too much into end-of-quarter trading - the XJO is up more than 400 points this quarter, giving the instos an irresistible opportunity to lock in performance bonuses. Trading: busy morning but one of those where I half suspect I'll finish not far off break-even. Good wins in two favourite traders, TPI and FXJ, peanuts from PAN. Underwater on AOG, SEK and STO. Ahead in 2nd trade in TPI. Put down the oldest dog in my kennel when LBY broke out.