Thanks Tweets. Good to have you back. Half-time round-up:Shares...

Thanks Tweets. Good to have you back. Half-time round-up:

Shares reached their highest level in almost a year this morning as rampant resource stocks offset a weak session for sectors exposed to high energy costs.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead by 12 points or 0.25% at 4952, with market heavyweight BHP accounting for most of the gains following reports that the Big Australian is preparing a bid for WPL, the country's largest listed oil and gas producer. The metals & mining sector jumped 1.8%, materials 1.6%, gold stocks 1.1% and energy 0.9%. However, the negative impact of a rising oil price was evidenced in sharp falls among consumer discretionary stocks -1.1% and industrials -1.3%.

"It's very much a resources market," EL&C Baillieu Stockbroking director Richard Morrow told Fairfax. "The entire spotlight of the market is focused on the biggest oil stock."

Also weighing on industrials was news that Leighton expects to deliver a full-year loss of $427 million and intends to raise $757 million by issuing new shares. The company announced $1.1 billion in write-downs on several troubled contracts.

US futures recovered this morning following Friday's sell-off. Dow futures were recently at +24 as Asian markets traded mixed. Japan's Nikkei slid 0.33%, Shanghai rallied 0.6% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.03%.

Crude oil futures eased 7 cents or 0.1% this morning to $112.75 a barrel. Spot gold was 90 cents softer at $1,473.20 an ounce. The dollar was hovering near record levels, buying US $1.057.


A real two-speed market this morning, with the big gains in BHP and WPL masking what was otherwise a pretty limp morning. There was an obvious move against companies negatively affected by rising oil - either shorts taking positions or prudent fund managers reducing their exposure or perhaps both. Leighton's news didn't help - some of today's selling will be fund managers freeing up cash to take part in the share issue. A busy morning here - caught the post-dividend bounce in MCE, scalped NGE and ECM and hope for a few points this afternoon from CSR, WTF and WDC once/if the selling abates.