Afternoon trading July 20

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market rallied for a third straight day, bucking soft overnight leads and declines this morning across several Asian markets and US equity futures.

The ASX 200 advanced 23 points or 0.4% to 6286, setting up a positive end to a week that began with two days of solid falls. A close above 6268 would secure a weekly gain.

Soft pre-market futures trade hinted at a losing session today after the S&P 500 shed 0.4% overnight. S&P 500 futures slid another 6.5 points or 0.23% this morning as Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.29% and Japan's Nikkei 0.49%. China's Shanghai Composite overcame early weakness, lately up 0.12%,

Leading this morning's domestic advance were health stocks +1.4%, IT +1.3%, industrials +0.8% and financials +0.4%. Resource stocks tempered index gains, with metals & mining off 1.5%, materials 1% and gold 0.6%.

Gold futures faded $5.60 or 0.46% this morning to US$1,218.40 an ounce. Crude oil futures gained 24 cents or 0.35% to US$69.70 a barrel. The dollar was buying 73.51 US cents.



Trading: been a slow week, so it was a relief to get handed TV2 on a plate this morning. Went in fairly hard at 0.9c for a pip that saved the week. That's the great thing about this game - it can turn around in a matter of minutes.