daytrade diaries... august 24 part 2

Half-time round-up:

Boom. Australian shares are heading for their best session gain in almost six weeks.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up 116 points or 2.72% at 4407, its best performance since the 130 point rise on July 14 that launched the second leg of the great post-GFC rally. The advances were led by the usual suspects: metals & mining up 3.7%, materials +3.6%, financials 3.1% and property trusts 3.7%..

Asian markets bounced back hard from last week's retrace. The Nikkei jumped 3.12% and the Hang Seng rose 2.13%. Shanghai was more circumspect at +0.5%. Dow futures were a bullish +57. Crude oil futures were choppy but on the rise, recently trading at $74.21.

A very nice day to trade. Caught the ride on FAR for a healthy day's wage, then traded VRLPA on the bounce. Bought WBC at the open to cash in on short covering in the banks. Got out of jail on AWE after a reckless buy last Thursday but exited far too early today. Also booked a profit on CXP.

Potential overnight holds: There were well-received profit results this morning from IOF, MRM, FXJ and SKI. I also like the look of CRJ.