Good Morning Fellow Traders, The Australian share market has...

Good Morning Fellow Traders,

The Australian share market has closed higher with most sectors posting gains, led by health care companies, big banks and industrial stocks.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 stock index finished the day up 0.64 per cent at 5,941.6 points, with energy the only sector to close lower.

Shaw & Partners senior private client adviser Craig Sidney said the market's strength was surprising given US markets are closed for the President's Day holiday tonight and Chinese markets remain closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Mr Sidney said healthcare and the banks were the main market drivers on Monday after a muted Wall Street performance last Friday but a slew of strong earnings reports from smaller companies added to the positive local sentiment.

Logistics firm Brambles' half-year profit of $US447.2 million ($A565.65 million) was triple the profit it made a year ago and the company's performance lifted its shares 1.1 per cent to $9.74.

Health insurer NIB's first-half net profit was slightly lower than a year ago but it upgraded its full-year profit guidance and NIB shares closed 2.6 per cent higher at $6.60.

Domain Holdings shares climbed 4.5 per cent to $3.00 after the recently listed property listings group reported a 13 per cent rise in underlying revenue thanks to increased earnings from its residential listings.

Shares in SEEK were up 1.9 per cent to $20.50 after the job ads portal lifted first-half profit and tipped full-year profit to be at the upper end of guidance.

And wind farm operator Infigen Energy shares jumped 9.9 per cent to 66.5 cents after it posted a big rise in half-year profit and announced it had a deal to refinance most of its debt.

Mr Sidney said stronger base metal and oil prices have also been a positive for the local market, except for Woodside Petroleum, which was a major drag with its shares tumbling $2.105, or 6.8 per cent, to $28.63 after it resumed trade following an equity raising.
"There has probably been some institutional selling given the placement," he said.

Elsewhere, health care giants CSL and Cochlear both rose 1.6 per cent to $155.86 and $175.92, respectively, while Ramsay Health Care jumped 2.6 per cent to $68.37.

National Australia Bank led the big four's gains with a 0.8 per cent lift to $29.46, ANZ rose 0.7 per cent to $28.05, Commonwealth Bank gained 0.5 per cent at $74.40 and Westpac was up 0.4 per cent at $30.34.

There was weakness among the major miners with BHP Billiton down 0.3 per cent and Rio Tinto off 0.6 per cent.

Among the poorer performers were logistics software company GetSwift which resumed trading and dived 55.1 per cent to $1.31 despite a month-long investigation into the company finding it had not breached continuous disclosure obligations.

Myer shares were 5.5 per cent weaker at a new low of 52 cents as its largest shareholder, Solomon Lew, ramped up his attack on the retailer's board.

Meanwhile, the Australian dollar was steady at 79.17 US cents at 1700 AEDT on Monday, from 79.72 on Friday.

ON THE ASX:
* At the close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 was up 37.6 points, or 0.64 per cent, at 5,941.6 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was up 39.2 points, or 0.65 per cent, at 6,044 points.
* The SPI200 futures contract was up 42 points, or 0.72 per cent, at 5,899.
* National turnover was 1.98 billion securities traded worth $4.51 billion.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 1700 AEDT:
One Australian dollar buys:
* 79.17 US cents, from 79.72 on Friday
* 84.32 Japanese yen, from 84.34 yen
* 63.80 euro cents, from 63.52 euro cents
* 56.48 British pence, from 56.40 pence
* 107.18 NZ cents, from 107.39 cents

GOLD:
The spot price of gold in Sydney at 1200 AEDT was $US1,346.47 per fine ounce, from $US1,358.19 per fine ounce on Friday.

BOND SNAPSHOT AT 1630 AEDT:
* CGS 4.50 per cent April 2020, 2.0176pct, from 2.0186pct
* CGS 4.75pct April 2027, 2.8328pct, from 2.8696pct
Sydney Futures Exchange prices:
* March 2018 10-year bond futures contract at 97.115 (implying a yield of 2.885pct), from 97.080 (implying a yield of 2.92pct) on Friday
* March 2018 3-year bond futures contract at 97.84 (2.16pct), from 97.835 (2.165pct).
(*Bond market closes taken at 1630 AEDT previous local session; currency closes taken from 1700 AEDT previous local session)

U.S. and China markets were closed.

World stocks were set to post their first loss in five days on Monday, breaking a winning streak that saw them recover almost half their losses from a violent sell-off two weeks ago.

In a day of relatively quiet trading owing to market holidays in the United States and China, losses in Europe weighed on stocks globally, which had earlier been propped up by gains in Japan.

European markets had opened positive, setting up the MSCI world index for its sixth day of gains but, by afternoon, the pan-European STOXX index had slipped over half a percent.


The MSCI world index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, was down 0.1 percent. The index has recovered nearly half what it lost between late January and last week’s low. The 4.3 percent gain it ultimately posted last week was its best weekly performance since December 2011.

January’s two-week rout, triggered by worries about a rise in U.S. inflation, had wiped more than $6 trillion off the value of global stock markets.
The sell-off took place despite global growth was helping to improve the corporate earnings outlook

Just before the plunge, world shares were trading at 16.66 times expected earnings, the highest levels since 2004, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream. They are currently at 15.33 times.

“Investors knew market volatility would be low as the U.S. and Canada celebrate public holidays, and that weighed on enthusiasm in this part of the world,” said David Madden, markets analyst at CMC Markets. “Dealers decided to lock in their profits from week.”

Equity investors have drawn some reassurance from a fall in the VIX - a measure of implied volatility on the S&P 500 index, also known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge”.

The index has remained below 20 for three days, last reading at 19.46. It spiked to a 2-1/2-year high of 50.3 two weeks ago, a jump that caused massive losses among investors who had bet equity markets would stay stable on a combination of solid economic growth and moderate inflation.

Greek government bond yields dipped after a ratings upgrade from Fitch that highlighted improving sentiment towards the indebted southern European state. Italian bonds came under pressure from jitters ahead of next month’s election.
Bond yields across the euro zone were broadly higher in the absence of any fresh drivers. [GVD/EUR].
The minutes of the Fed’s last policy meeting, held amid the equities tumble on Jan. 30-31, are due on Wednesday. Besides the outlook on rates, markets will be keen to see what, if anything, the Fed makes of the gyrations in markets.

Source: Netwealth Morning Business Roundup

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