Half-time round-up:The Australian stock market is on track for...

Half-time round-up:

The Australian stock market is on track for its heaviest one-day fall in two weeks after profit warnings from Telstra and Fosters and losses among miners.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was down 46 points or 1% at 4624. Resources stocks copped the worst of the sell-off, with gold off 3.8%, metals & mining down 2% and materials 1.9%. IT +1.6% and health +0.6% were the only sectors in positive territory. Financials were down 0.8%.

Telstra predicted zero improvement in sales revenue in the 2010 fiscal year. The shares were recently down 3.4%. Fosters announced it would lose $80 million to $90 million from wine earnings because of exchange rate movements.

"It gives everyone a bit of a reality check, when a couple of big companies warn about their earnings," Cameron Stockbroking's Adrian Leppinus told Fairfax. "Weve had a good run up and, in some sectors, the market probably got a bit ahead of itself."

Asian markets followed Wall Street lower. Japan's Nikkei was down 1.12%, Shanghai 0.98% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.87%. Dow futures were at +2.

The spot gold price recovered some lost ground this morning, up more than $5 at $1,103.20 an ounce. Crude oil futures edged up 10 cents to $72.77 a barrel.


Had a reasonable morning here scalping off the lows. Best trades were QAN and MML. ALS would also have been okay with a full fill. In and out of BTA for brokerage - should have been more patient. Still holding BKN from near the low, waiting for a bounce.