Afternoon trading March 19

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares edged higher as evidence of collapsing house prices dampened the prospects for an interest rate hike.

The ASX 200 rallied eight points or 0.1 per cent to 6199 mid-session as gains in iron ore miners outweighed declines in industrials and health and technology stocks. BHP edged up 1.8 per cent and Rio Tinto 1.7 per cent as iron ore inched towards $US90 a tonne after a Brazilian court halted production at Vale's Timbopeba mine. Fortescue Mining eased 0.4 per cent from yesterday's two-year high.

Housing data released this morning showed the slide in real estate prices across the nation accelerated more than expected last quarter as the housing boom unwound. The Australian Bureau of Statistics' house price index fell 2.4 per cent over the three months to December That was up from a 1.5 per cent decline over the previous quarter and above expectations for a fall of around 2 per cent.

At the same time, the Reserve Bank released the minutes from its last policy meeting, noting "significant uncertainties" about the outlook for the economy. The bank said the case for raising or lowering rates was currently "evenly balanced". At the meeting, the bank decided to leave its key rate on hold at 1.5 per cent.

TPG Telecom advanced 1.5 per cent despite announcing a 76 per cent plunge in profit due to impairments after the company abandoned plans to build a 4G mobile network with controversial Chinese telecom giant Huawei. Shareholders gave the company the benefit of the doubt as underlying earnings and profit both improved.

Coal miner New Hope Corporation slumped 9.9 per cent as an increase in one-off expenses took the shine off a 4 per cent increase in half-year profits. Shares in oil retailer Caltex fell 3.5 per cent after the company admitted its margins were being squeezed by the sharp rebound in crude oil and pricing pressure from competitors.

Overnight, US stocks pushed higher ahead of a two-day Federal Reserve policy meeting that is expected to confirm the central bank's willingness to postpone rate rises after a run of soft economic data. The S&P 500 put on 0.37 per cent. Index futures wererecently ahead 3.25 points or 0.1 per cent.

A mixed morning on Asian markets saw China's Shanghai Composite add 0.4 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.2 percent. Japan's Nikkei shed 0.1 per cent.

Crude oil continued to push towards the $US60 a barrel mark after OPEC decided to keep production curbs in place to boost prices. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were lately sitting at $US59.09 a barrel.

Gold futures crept higher this morning, recently ahead $3.80 or 0.3 per cent at $US1,305.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.1 US cents.

Looking ahead, the Fed commences a two-day policy meeting tonight in the US but does not reveal details of the discussion until tomorrow night. January factory orders are due tonight. Another low-key session here tomorrows, with a leading index of economic indicators the only release worth mentioning.

Trading: needed two swings at FPL to nail a profit. Also clipped a pip from EN1.