A fourth day of gains saw the ASX 200 push firmly through 6000 after a bright end to Wall Street trade last week.
The benchmark index rallied 28 points or 0.5% to 6028 by the halfway stage of the session. Leading the surge were telecoms +1%, energy +0.8% and financials +0.8%. The metals & mining sector edged up 0.2%. Missing the rally were utilities -1.4%, consumer staples -0.6% and IT -0.3%.
"The internals in the ASX 200 are fairly bullish, with the percentage of ASX 200 corporates trading above their 20-day moving average heading from just 8% last week to currently sit at 65%," IG analyst Chris Weston told Fairfax. "Market breadth has been okay, although that said, I would still be expecting a far higher conviction for sellers to emerge into 6100 to 6150."
US stocks kicked higher on Friday as interest rates pulled back from four-year highs. The S&P 500 put on 1.6% in a bullish close to the week. S&P 500 futures were recently down 3.3 points or 0.12%. China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.73%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.65% and Japan's Nikkei 1.18%.
Crude oil futures dipped two cents or 0.03% this morning to US$63.53 a barrel. Gold futures added $6 or 0.45% to US$1,336.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 78.43 US cents.
Been a bit more evidence of takeover action on the ASX lately after a long dry run - always good for market confidence. RHS was today's winner. Can't say I've been able to identify any patterns yet. Anyone have a take on it? Trading: few coins from ELS. Speculator in GLA.
