Afternoon daytrading July 16

Thanks Zero and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A strong week looks set to end with a third gain from four sessions as weakness in resource stocks was offset by interest in yield stocks.

The ASX 200 put on 18 points or 0.3% to push back towards 5800, lately trading at 5781. Yield sectors including utilities +0.8%, telecoms +0.7% and financials +0.6% spearheaded the rally. The gold sector -1.2%, metals & mining -0.5% and materials -0.2% provided headwinds.

The energy sector gained 0.2% despite an overnight dip in the price of crude towards six-month lows. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were lately down another three cents or 0.07% to US$44.43 a barrel.

Helping sentiment was a recovery in US equity futures after another rough session for tech stocks. Dow futures were recently up 25 points or 0.12%. China's Shanghai Composite drifted 0.13%, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.38% and Japan's Nikkei 0.53%.

Gold futures declined 30 cents or 0.02% this morning to US$1,254.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.96 US cents.


Trading: best session in several weeks, thanks to the rebound in GXY (volume and fear levels peaked yesterday) and a nice bounce in PAR. Initial buy on latter was too timid - feared further weakness - but still a good ten pip trade.