Shares were little changed at lunchtime as gains for the big miners were cancelled by moderate falls among the banks after ASIC launched legal action related to the collapse of Storm Financial.
At 1pm the ASX 200 was ahead 4 points or 0.1% at 4776, with IT, metals & mining and materials topping sector gains. The financial sector was 0.3% weaker after ASIC this morning launched legal proceedings against the Commonwealth Bank, Bank of Queensland and Macquarie Group alleging the banks helped run an unregistered managed investment scheme.
The economy continued to grow above the long-term average rate in October, but well down from earlier in the year. The WBC-MI leading index this morning showed annualised growth of 4.1% in October, down from a peak of 9.7% in March. The long-term trend rate is 3.3%.
Asian markets followed Wall Street higher. Japan's Nikkei was up 0.1%, Shanghai 0.2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.2%. Dow futures were recently at -6.
Crude oil futures rallied 27 cents this morning to $89.98 a barrel. Spot gold was $4.30 stronger at $1,389.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying 99.67 U.S. cents.
Low-key morning all round. Scalped SMA and SEK. Also holding PEK.
