Afternoon trading August 17

Thanks @shovel40, @Fiji1 and morning crew.

Half-time wrap:

Aussie shares sank to a five-week low, retaining most of their losses after gloomy jobs figures doused the likelihood of further interest rate rises.

At the halfway mark, the ASX 200 was down 65 points or 0.91% at 7130. The benchmark traded as low as 7107 before mid-morning jobs data showed a sharp uptick in unemployment last month from 3.47% to 3.71%. The increase in joblessness came as the economy shed 14,600 jobs.

Stocks climbed off their lows amid hopes that the report rules out official rates going higher than the current 4.1%. The dollar slumped more than half a percentage point, lately buying 63.74 US cents.

"The RBA won't be raising rates when they meet in September," tweeted Callam Pickering, APAC senior economist at @IndeedAU.

"Today's AU jobs report means the #RBA are dun dun dun dunn DONE!!!," tweeted City Index market analyst Matt Simpson.

Personal trading: Caught a little of the FTL bounce. Also took INR.