Afternoon trading October 16

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

A relief rally brought respite for shellshocked Australian investors this morning following more than a week of heaving selling.

The ASX 200 bounced almost 50 points in early action before paring its gain to 33 points or 0.6% at 5870 mid-session. Resource stocks led the recovery, the gold sector rising 2.3%, metals & mining 1.6% and materials 1.5%. The battered financial sector edged up 0.5%. The IT sector remained under pressure, losing another 0.25%. Telecoms lost 1% and health 0.4%.

The recovery came despite another soft session in the US, where the S&P 500 gave up 0.59% and the Nasdaq 0.88%. Helping sentiment here was a rise in S&P 500 futures, lately up 7.5 points or 0.27%. China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.64% andJapan's Nikkei 0.37%.

Crude oil futures improved seven cents or 0.1% this morning to US$71.85 a barrel. Gold futures added $1 or 0.08%to US$1,231.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.35 US cents.

Trading: extraordinary morning for BIT. Hope all here have managed their exposure. Doubt we'll see 44.5 cents any time soon. I traded one of the dips, but admit the volatility bundled me out for minimal gain. Better fortune in CPV - something of a revenge trade after dropping a bit at higher levels.