Afternoon trading August 4

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares were little changed at lunchtime as accusations of serious compliance failures weighed on the ASX's largest stock by market weighting.

The ASX 200 overcame early losses to advance two points or less than 0.1% to 5737 at the halfway mark despite a 2.8% fall in CBA shares on news of government court action over claims the bank failed to comply with money laundering and terrorism laws. Other banks caught some of the fallout, pushing the financial sector down 0.6%. A two-speed market saw those losses offset by gains in industrials +0.8%, health +0.7% and materials +0.6%.

China's Shanghai Composite put on 0.25% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.04%. Japan's Nikkei shed 0.36%. Dow futures were recently up five points or 0.02%.

Crude oil futures slipped 14 cents or 0.29% this morning to US$48.89 a barrel. Gold futures inched down 70 cents or 0.06% to US$1,273.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 79.55 US cents.


Trading: needed a good, busy session to make the weekly target after two low-achievement days. Thankfully, got it with the likes of MYX (well spotted, Keyser), KRC (yes, Trees), DJW and hopefully GGL.