Thanks Oscar and morning crew.
Half-time round-up:
Shares swept to a four-month high before paring gains on a mixed bag of earnings updates.
The ASX 200 peaked at 6116 in the first half hour of trade, then cut its advance to 30 points or 0.5% at 6095 mid-session. Subduing buying interest were a market holiday in the US tonight for President's Day and profit warnings this morning from Bank of Queensland and Bingo Industries.
Shares in Bank of Queensland fell 6.1% after the bank flagged a drop in earnings due to deteriorating income from fees. Westpac also released figures this morning and was lately ahead 0.1% as investors shrugged at a quarterly profit increase of 6.8% to $2.04 billion.
The biggest prang of the morning was waste-management company Bingo Industries, whose shares were slashed 45.4% after it downgraded its forward guidance from growth of 15-20% to zero. Travel agency Helloworld also copped it from investors, losing 6.6% despite reaffirming full-year guidance.
Building supplier GWA rallied 5% to a seven-month high after announcing a 7.3% lift in net profit to $26.6 million. Condom and medical glove maker Ansell was given the benefit of the doubt by shareholders as chief executive Magnus Nicolin attempts to restructure the business. Shares were pushed up 3.4% despite a 91% drop in first-half profit due to restructuring costs.
Aside from companies reporting, market heavyweight BHP was a standout, surging 1.4% to its highest level since 2011 on the back of improving iron ore prices. Also enjoying the ride were Fortescue Metal, up 1.5%, and Rio Tinto, up 2.1%.
Over in Asia, China's Shanghai Composite rebounded 1.19% ahead of the resumption of trade talks with the US tonight in Washington. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.56% andJapan's Nikkei 1.55%. S&P 500 futures were flat. On Friday, the S&P 500 ended strongly with a rise of 1.09% as President Donald Trump talked up a likely deal with China.
Crude oil futures continued to rally this morning, putting on 41 cents or 0.74% to $US56 a barrel. Gold futures advanced $5.70 or 0.43% to $US1,327.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.48 US cents.
Trading: extracted a slim profit from PIL from Friday. Also got something out of the bounce in SSM but not nearly enough.
