DT Feb 28 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares advanced today for the first time in four sessions as fund managers dressed up portfolios at the end of a strong month and solid economic data raised expectations for tomorrow's GDP report.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was 27 points or 0.5% ahead at 5751. A close around those levels would represent a monthly gain of around 130 points. Energy was the best of the sectors, rebounding 1.9% from yesterday's resources sell-off. Financials also performed well, adding 1%. At the other end of the market, the gold sector slumped 4.5% and the Small Ords 0.4%.

Booming commodity prices helped narrow the current account deficit to $3.85 billion last quarter from $10.2 billion the previous quarter. Improved exports are expected to lift GDP for the quarter up two-tenths of a percentage point. Economists predict tomorrow's report will show the economy grew by 0.7%.

China's Shanghai Composite put on 0.16%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.24% and Japan's Nikkei 0.67%. Dow futures were recently up seven points or 0.03%.

Crude oil futures improved 12 cents or 0.22% this morning to US$54.17 a barrel. Gold futures declined another $5.30 or 0.42% to US$1,253.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.81 US cents.


Can't read too much into the last day of the month - fair bit of window dressing seems to go on when bonuses are at stake. Nonetheless, it's interesting that we've been drifting down for almost two weeks while Wall Street keeps drifting up. Something will have to give - either they come back to us or we make up some ground. Trading: difficult morning with the early broker software problems muddying the waters, then some pretty heavy selling near tops. Got something out of NZC early on. CHK took longer to come good. Would welcome any sort of partial recoveries in MLS and BAR.