Strength in the big banks off-set weakness among resource stocks during a flat morning for the local share market.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was unchanged at 4741. Financial stocks topped sector gains, up 0.7%. Property trusts were the other stand-out, rising 0.5%. Telecoms was the weakest sector, down 1.2%, ahead of materials -0.8% and metals & mining -0.7%.
"We have been seeing some sector rotation in the past couple of days, out of the materials sector and into the financials," IG Markets analyst Cameron Peacock told Fairfax. "We have seen some money going into US financials and that has translated across to our market a little bit."
Asian markets fell back. Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.34%, Shanghai 0.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.35%. Dow futures were recently at +9.
Crude oil futures were little changed, rising 8 cents this morning to $88.48 a barrel. The spot gold price was $1.50 stronger at $1,388.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying 98.45 U.S. cents.
A predictably slow morning, given overnight events. Been a morning of regulation bounce scalping for me - DTE, CWN, IPL and SEH (always seem to read Endless's warnings AFTER I buy, lol). No harm done. Still holding IPL. Roll on Friday night.
