Thanks Oscar and morning crew. Half-time round-up: The share...

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The share market poked is head above 6000 for a second day, undeterred by negative US equity futures and falls in Asia.

The ASX 200 shrugged off soft overnight commodities prices to advance 12 points or 0.2% to 6002 at the midpoint of the session. Rallies in health stocks +0.9%, IT +0.8% and consumer staples +0.6% outweighed a flat morning for the big banks and falls in telecoms -1.4% and metals & mining -0.8%.

US futures turned negative this morning following a mixed close for the major indices overnight. S&P 500 futures were lately down 2.5 points or 0.1%. Overnight the index eased 0.04%, while the Dow put on 0.1%.

Much of the attention this morning was on China after government efforts to cool a rampant market sparked sharp selling over recent sessions.

“Chinese authorities... have been concerned with the equity market continually heading higher on very low participation,” Chris Weston, chief strategist at IG Markets, told Reuters. “The question is whether further downside in Chinese mainland equities continues in the session ahead and will there be a spillover into Hong Kong and potentially even Japan, Korea and Australia.”

The Shanghai Composite was lately down 0.24%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.58% and Japan's Nikkei 0.03%. Crude oil futures fell 28 cents or 0.48% this morning to US$57.83 a barrel. Gold futures eased 20 cents or 0.02% to US$1,298.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 76.07 US cents.


Trading: clambered aboard the FGF bounce wagon (purely a trade, not buying the story). Took a while but came good. Also traded BIG once it had shrunk enough to tempt.