Afternoon trading February 15

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A flat week for Australian shares looked set to end on an uptick as earnings updates from Medibank and Domain helped the benchmark index edge higher.

While the domestic earnings season has thrown up some major share revaluations this week, the ASX 200 has been stuck in a tight trading range just below the 6100 level. This morning the index advanced 15 points or 0.2% to 6074, just three points above where it started the week.

Property media group Domain showed the housing downturn has had less impact than analysts feared, announcing a first-half net profit of $21.1 million. While the result reflected a profit decline of 14.2%, investors expected worse and responded by sending the share price up 18.2%.

Health insurer Medibank Private rallied 7.2% despite revealing a profit drop of 15.4% to $207.7 million. Investor nerves were soothed by an improved interim dividend and an increase in the number of people taking out policies.  

A 19% increase in half-year profit was not enough to satisfy investors in Whitehaven Coal, who sent the share price down 10.3%. Motoring retailer Automotive Holdings also felt the wrath of aggrieved shareholders, falling 8.4% after releasing a profit warning.

Turning to the sectors, telecoms was the pick, rising 1.6% as Telstra recovered from yesterday's post-earnings retreat. Energy stocks put on 0.8% and gold 0.5%. At the other end, the I.T. sector lost 0.9%, health 0.4% and materials 0.1%.

Traders woke to generally soft leads from overseas as Wall Street closed mixed but broadly lower overnight and most European markets fell. The S&P 500 in the US shed 0.27% after a collapse in retail sales left traders fretting about the waning buying power of the American consumer. Retail sales contracted 1.8% during December, a result so dire and unexpected that analysts now say there is zero chance of another rate rise in the US this year. The gloomy mood continued this morning, with S&P 500 futures recently down 6.25 points or 0.23%.

A downbeat session in Asia saw China's Shanghai Composite lose 0.35%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1% andJapan's Nikkei 1.06%.

Crude oil futures edged closer to US$55 a barrel, lately up 34 cents or 0.62% to $US54.75. Gold futures ticked up 80 cents or 0.1% to $US1,314.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 70.87 US cents.

 

 

Trading: not a sniff all morning. Stalked a few, but nothing got to the level where I pulled the trigger. I'm off to the city now to see a band and let myself down. Have a good arvo and I'll see you next week.