daytrades may 6 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Sharp falls in Australia's big banks after a disappointing first-half profit from NAB have dragged the local share market to a third morning of heavy losses.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 72 points or 1.5 at 4601 after trading at levels last seen in mid-February. All but three sectors were trading lower, with the largest losses coming in financials -3.1%, IT -1.7% and consumer discretionary -1.3%. Gold, health and telecoms were the sectors trading higher. Falls in the financial sector were exaggerated by ANZ going ex-dividend this morning.

NAB shares fell more than 2% after it posted a 22% fall in its first-half net profit. The bank said the fall was "largely due to accounting volatility from significantly lower movements on financial instruments".

Oil and gas producer Santos joined a chorus of miners protesting against the federal government's proposed new tax on resources profits. Chairman Peter Coates told shareholders at the company's AGM this morning, "It is difficult to regard the tax proposals as anything other than bad news for the resources sector and the thousands of Australians who work in it... It is risky and unnecessary to introduce new taxes at a time when the Australian resources industry is set to underpin Australia's prosperity for decades to come."

Recent interest rate hikes weighed on March retail sales, which rose but missed economists' expectations, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data released this morning. Retail sales rose 0.3%, below predictions of a 0.7% increase for March.

Australia's trade gap widened in March. ABS data showed a deficit of $2.082 billion, slightly below expectations.

Asian markets continued to weaken. Japan's Nikkei played catch-up after a long public holiday, falling 3.15% in morning trade. Shanghai slumped 1.3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.3%. Dow futures were recently at a mildly bullish +24.

Crude oil futures recovered some of their heavy overnight losses, rising 47 cents this morning to $80.10 a barrel. The spot gold price was 30 cents lower at $1,175 an ounce.


A much tougher morning to trade than yesterday, but there's a hint of a bounce developing in the market now. A mixed bag here. Skimmed a few points off AAX early on and got back in near 4.20. MRE trade went nowhere. CTX trade developing well. Took a point off MAE - exited quickly after regretting the trade as soon as I took it. Currently holding LEI, CAB and AAX for recoveries.