daytrades august 25 afternoon

Afternoon all, With Highland Lad out of action this is the start of the Afternoon thread. Markets are very weak, what's new?, but they did offer up a few bounces this morning. According to the chartists we are sitting near support levels and in the hands of the DOW. Coming off already very weak SPs you'd think we don't have much further to fall at present. I won't call it. I will prob spend the arvo thinking about what to buy into the close, if anything.

Happy Trades
Expect to see HLL back on deck tomorrow.

LUNCHTIME REPORT (Courtesy of Commsec)
(12pm AEST)

The Australian share market has followed Wall Street into the red, with investors still very cautious about buying banking and mining stocks. At lunchtime in the East, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 38.3pts or 0.87pct to 4,380.1.

The miners were amongst the worst performers, even with the anticipation of BHP Billiton (BHP) releasing its full year results after the close of the market today. Index leader BHP shares are lower by 0.6pct to $37.30 on weaker base metals prices, while Rio Tinto (RIO) has fallen 2.4pct to $69.34 and Macarthur Coal Limited (MCC) down 8.3pct and Whitehaven Coal Limited (WHC) of 0.7pct after a broker downgrade from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

The energy sector is down 1.4pct on a weaker oil price off another 2pct overnight to US$71.63 a barrel. Oilsearch (OSH) off 0.5pct, with Woodside Petroleum Limited (WPL) off 1.2pct to $42.61 and Santos Limited (STO) shares down 0.14pct at lunchtime ahead of its half year result release tomorrow.

The banking and finance sector in focus again today with a solid result from Suncorp Group Limited (SUN). SUN released its annual net profit today, its profit more than doubled on year to $780million. Suncorp?s revenue rose to $15.7billion. Suncorp?s core businesses have seen signs of improvement especially in its general and life insurance divisions. The company said ??Suncorp is making good progress in recovering from the challenges that became apparent during the global financial crisis,?? Suncorp management remains confident about lifting its insurance margins. SUN shares up 3.98pct to $8.09. Shares in Westpac (WBC) off 0.75pct to $21.27 and The National Australia Bank (NAB) down 0.9pct to $22.98. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) off 1.29pct to $48.81.

The Australian dollar is worth US88.58c and ?69.99c.

Juliana Roadley
CommSec Market Analyst.