Half-time round-up:Gains in miners and property trusts helped...

Half-time round-up:

Gains in miners and property trusts helped the ASX grind higher this morning.

At lunchtime, the ASX 200 was up 24 points or 0.62% at 3898 after gains in the gold sector (2.2%), property trusts (1.9%) and metals & mining (1.7%).

In Asia, the Hang Seng played catch-up after yesterday's holiday, adding 1.55%, while the Nikkei was flat. Dow futures were recently -10. Gold drifted lower, recently down almost $2 at $938.10. Oil rallied 15 cents to $69.43.

Dull morning here. Took profits on UMC because of a thinning buy depth - it's a strange, skittish share to trade. Meagre scalp on ALZ from near the lows. Nice run on NCM as a gold play. Poor show from the nickel plays this morning - haven't built on the stronger opens at all.