Afternoon trading October 22

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Shares backtested the 5900 level for a second session as political uncertainty following the weekend by-election compounded soft leads from Wall Street.

The ASX 200 slipped as low as 5888 before staging a partial recovery to reach the mid-point of the session 31 points or 0.5% down at 5908. Slim gains in gold stocks +0.5% and telecoms +0.1% were swamped by declines in I.T. -1.5%, industrials -1.2%, materials -0.5% and financials -0.3%.

A swing of 20% against the Liberal Party in yesterday's Wentworth by-election appeared likely to cost the coalition its one-seat majority in parliament and cast doubt over the government's likelihood of retaining power after next year's election.

“It will increase market conviction that as and when the next election does occur (no later than May 2019) it is likely to produce a change of government,” Ray Attrill, NAB head of foreign-exchange strategy, told CNBC.

Also causing downward pressure were soft US equity futures. S&P 500 futures were recently off 5.5 points or 0.2%. On Friday the index closed 0.04% lower, near the bottom of its intraday range. The mood was brighter in Asia. China's Shanghai Composite this morning extended Friday's rebound with a rally of 1.81%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng put on 1.05% andJapan's Nikkei shed 0.38%.

Crude oil futures improved 12 cents or 0.17% this morning to US$69.24 a barrel. Gold futures edged up $1.60 or 0.13%to US$1,230.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71.03 US cents.

Trading: began the session with a bad run of 'bridesmaid' buy orders where the price veered at the last moment, leaving me standing at the altar with sweet Fanny Adams. Finally found a partner in CPH off the lows. More recently took a speculator in POH. Too many nearlies.