daytrades april 5 afternoon

Thanks Barnsty. Half-time round-up:

Shares were higher at lunchtime for the 12th day in 13, fuelled by gains for potential take-over targets in the mining sector.

At 1pm the ASX 200 was ahead 8 points or 0.2% at 4895 as gains for miners, Telstra and property trusts offset a flat session for the banks and falls among industrials, energy stocks and several defensive sectors.

Equinox rallied another 1% as yesterday's take-over offer from China's Minmetals Resources encouraged speculators to pick up other potential mid-cap targets.

"That situation is really lifting the market overall and some of the mid-cap miners are doing well as a result," Commonwealth Securities analyst Steven Daghlian told Fairfax. Daghlian identified LYC, MCC and AWC as companies benefitting from take-over speculation.

The dollar dipped sharply this morning after news of a surprise trade deficit in February. Exports fell a seasonally-adjusted 2%, flipping the terms of trade from a $1.4 billion surplus in January to a $205 million deficit. The dollar dropped more than half a cent in response to trade recently at US $1.0326.

Services activity contracted for a fifth month in March as the retail and transport sectors remained weak. The AIG/CBA Performance of Services Index fell 2.2 points to 46.5 in March. Analysts attributed the fall to the strong dollar, November interest rate rise and natural disasters.

Weak Japanese markets helped drag US futures lower. The Nikkei fell 1.15% in morning trade as car-makers were hit by supply worries. Hong Kong and Shanghai markets were closed for bank holidays. Dow futures were recently at -16.

Crude oil futures eased 3 cents this morning to $108.21 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.70 higher at $1,436.70 an ounce.


Not a bad performance by our market considering the weakness in Asia and US futures. Still, the longer this run continues, the harder it is to find decent entry levels. Just one trade this morning but it was nicely profitable - a fat stake in the ex-dividend recovery in SIP. (Thanks Winnetwo for the idea. See what I mean about how much I get out of this forum?)