daytrades april 14 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

Sliding resource and industrial stocks dragged the Australian market lower for the second day in three as China's monthly economic update, due tomorrow, weighed on regional markets.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was off 43 points or 0.9% at 4868, having fallen more than 100 points since hitting a 2011 peak of 4976 on Monday. Utilities was the only sector to advance this morning, rising 0.5%. Industrials was the worst of the bunch, down 1.5%, after Leighton Holdings resumed trade after a profit downgrade and capital raising. Metals & mining was off -1.4% and gold, health and materials all slumped 1.3%.

"We've had a fantastic run in the previous three weeks. We're easing back a bit now and that's probably the way we will glide into Easter," Austock Securities senior client adviser Michael Heffernan told Fairfax. "I wouldn't expect any major movements upwards or downwards. It will just be ripples on the pond for the market over the course of the next week."

Asian markets declined in cautious trade ahead of tomorrow's Chinese inflation figures. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.59%, Shanghai 0.05% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.74%. Dow futures were recently at -3.

The dollar pulled back below US $1.05 after overnight comments from a member of the US Federal Reserve suggesting the US will soon start to tighten lending. The Aussie was recently buying US $1.0492.

Spot gold was 50 cents stronger at $1,458.70 an ounce. Crude oil futures were unchanged at $107.32 a barrel.


Tough morning. I'd guess some of the selling is international investors using our market as a proxy for China on the expectation of further interest rate rises there in the months ahead. My performance has been as lacklustre as the market. Took profits on HST - like many here, I thought there would be more in it but a profit is a profit. Grabbed a few IPL and MRM on pullback but bounces are slow in coming. Also took a speculator in MUI - appears oversold intraday.