Afternoon trading March 13

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market's losing run extended into a fourth session after the British parliament rejected a revised Brexit deal and new figures revealed a sharp downturn in consumer sentiment.

The ASX 200 declined 33 points or 0.5 per cent to 6142, close to its weakest level in almost two weeks. The local index has been stuck in reverse gear since peaking at a six-month high last Thursday. Sentiment across global markets has deteriorated over the last week as a run of soft economic figures raised questions about the strength of the global economy.

This morning's monthly consumer sentiment update from Westpac did nothing to alleviate those concerns. The report showed sentiment slumped 4.8% this month, the worst downswing since September 2015. That helped drag the consumer discretionary sector down 0.4 per cent.

Adding to headwinds was news that British MPs this morning rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's revised Brexit deal by 391 votes to 242. While the result was anticipated, it adds to the uncertainty surrounding the nation's exit from the European bloc. Parliament will tonight be asked to vote on a 'no deal' exit - the so-called 'Hard Brexit'. If that option is rejected as expected, MPs will return tomorrow night to vote on asking the European Union for an extension to the March 29 deadline. So the uncertainty continues.

Here the health sector was the biggest drag on the market, falling 1.2 per cent after Sigma Health knocked back a takeover offer from rival Australian Pharmaceutical Industries. The two companies had been in negotiation since December. However, the Sigma board this morning announced they reckon the company will fare better on its own. Shares in Sigma dropped 14.75 per cent, with the selling accelerating after API announced it disagreed with their decision and was reviewing its investment in its rival. Shares in API lost 2.7 per cent.

The only sectors to resist the downtrend today were traditional defensives: gold up 1.6 per cent and utilities trading flat. The energy sector declined 0.8 per cent, financials 0.6 per cent and materials 0.4%.

Overnight, Wall Street closed mixed ahead of the Brexit vote. Boeing's woes clipped 0.38 per cent off the Dow Jones Industrial Average but the broader S&P 500 gaining 0.3 per cent. US index futures showed mild concern about the Brexit rejection. S&P 500 futures wererecently down six points or more than 0.2 per cent.

Asian markets turned lower. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.81 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.32 percent and Japan's Nikkei 0.75 per cent.

Crude oil futures put on 20 cents or 0.4 per cent this morning to $US57.07 a barrel. Gold futures rallied $6 or 0.5 per cent to $US1,304.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying 70.63 US cents.

Looking ahead to potential market-moving news over the next 24 hours, Wall Street has some chunky economic data to get its teeth into tonight, including durable goods orders and producer prices. The Brexit sage continues in Britain tomorrow morning with a vote on a hard, no-deal exit. There are no major economic reports due here tomorrow, but China will release a slew of data, including industrial production and retail sales figures.

Trading: busy morning trading the dips. Couple of pips from RMP. In and out of 88E for brokerage. GLN eventually came good but I needed three buys to get my average entry low enough for a good profit. Also squeezed something out of one of the temporary bounces in SPT.