daytrade diaries... february 12 part 2

Half-time round-up:

The Australian share market was little changed at lunchtime after sliding bank stocks and further pain for Telstra shareholders cancelled out advancing resource stocks.

The ASX 200 was up 2 points or 0.05% at 4556 after more falls among the big banks and Telstra following this week's CBA/TLS profit results. The telecoms sector was down 2.3% and the financial sector -0.6%.

The mining sector was up 1.1% after a positive reaction to Rio Tinto's full-year result, released after yesterday's market close.

"The market is certainly liking the continuing resources story, particularly with those big bulk commodities and the demand coming out of those Asian markets which they service," RBS Morgans Ipswich manager Tony Russell told Fairfax.

The news was more grim across the pond. House sales in New Zealand plunged to their lowest level in 18 years, according to data released today. January delivered the lowest monthly sales since electronic records began in 1992.

Asian markets were mostly higher. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.79% and Shanghai 0.51% but Hong Kong's Hang Seng was off 0.25%. Dow futures were recently at -9.

Crude oil futures eased 16 cents this morning to $74.98 a barrel. The spot gold price slipped $2.30 to $1,090.10 an ounce.


This has been a washout of a week for my trading techniques. Every session bar yesterday the market has fallen away from any early gains. Never easy to "long" fading markets. Haven't lost money but haven't much to show for the week. Tiny part-fill scalp this morning on IRI. Got into GWT too soon on retreat - the instos are having fun with this one. I'm not sure there are more than one or two genuine buys anywhere in the queue.