daytrades july 8 afternoon

Afternoon all, has not been one of my best days. Sold what I shouda held and held what I shouda sold. But no-one is perfect. A lot of stocks putting in good performances, AKI, CGM, RMP, RDS and PRR, CEO and NAE holding up against buyer fatigue. It would be nice to see something run hard in the arvo, but I am always tempted to keep anything that runs on Friday arvos.

Market has held onto its gains and doesn't seem to be too worried about Carbon Tax annc. Gold price is weirdly steady for last three days. Is it gonna break up or down? Is Haspete gonna bite the bullet and short the ASX this arvo?

Hoping to see Highland Lad back in the driver's seat next week. Been a pleasure to hold the fort. Makes me appreciate your constant efforts to keep this show on course all the more. PS: I will stand by Monday morning if you still indisposed.

Happy Trades

Midday report courtesy of Commsec.

MIDDAY REPORT
(12.00pm AEST)

The Australian sharemarket is gaining for the third straight day with the All Ordinaries index up 0.9 pct or 44 pts to 4710.1. All sectors are trading higher with the energy and mining sectors the best performers.

The world?s largest miner, BHP Billiton (BHP) is up 1.17 pct or 52 cents to $44.94 while the iron ore focused RIO Tinto (RIO) is 0.98 pct or 82 cents stronger to $84.37. Iron ore and coal are Australia?s largest exports.

The country?s biggest banks are all trading in the black, with Westpac (WBC) up 1.05 pct or 23 cents to $22.10, ANZ Banking Group (ANZ) is 0.92 pct or 20 cents higher to $21.98, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is 0.86 pct or 43 cents stronger to $51.82 and National Australia Bank (NAB) is improving by 0.24 pct or 6 cents to $25.08.

Department store owner David Jones (DJS) is up 2.27 pct or 9 cents to $4.06 and its competitor Myer (MYR) is gaining by 1.14 pct or 3 cents to $2.66. Discount retailer JB Hi-Fi (JBH) is 1.35 pct or 23 cents higher to $17.21 while Australia?s largest specialty retailer, Harvey Norman (HVN) is up 1.2 pct or 3 cents to $2.53. Despite today?s gains all the above retailers have fallen significantly over the past 6 months.

The Asian sharemarkets are higher, with Japan?s Nikkei 225 index up 1.06 pct or 106.79 pts to 10177.93, Hong Kong?s Hang Seng index up 1.15 pct or 259.96 pts to 22790.14 and South Korea?s KOSPI index is currently flat.

As is usually the case on most Fridays, there is no major economic data scheduled for release in Australia today. In the region however, Japan will release its latest current account statistics, and an investor sentiment report.

The best performing stock at lunch is Nickelore (NIO), which is up 37.5 pct or 0.3 pts to 1.1. NIO is a mineral exploration company mainly focused on projects across Western Australia. The company was first listed back in the year 2000 and has a market capitalisation of just $1.7 million.

So far today, 651 million shares have been traded worth $1.82 billion. 619 shares are up, 281 are lower and 322 are currently unchanged.

The Australian dollar has gained significantly over the past 24 hours and currently buys US107.6 cents.

Steven Daghlian
Commsec Market Analyst