daytrades june 27 afternoon

Thanks Tweets. Half-time round-up:

The share market wallowed near a nine-month low this morning as most regional markets fell back and US futures flashed red.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 53 points or 1.2% weaker at 4453, just 3 points off the 2011 low established last week. All sectors except telecoms lost ground, with small caps and resource stocks copping much of the selling. The Small Ordinaries fell 2.2%, gold stocks 2.6% and energy stocks 1.9%. The health and IT sectors also dropped more than 2%.

The big banks were hit by weak sentiment towards the sector following concerns about European banks over the weekend, but pared losses as the morning advanced. The Greek parliament is due to vote tomorrow night on austerity measures that are required for the government to receive further funds from the European Union and IMF.

"Whilst Australian banks have no direct exposure to Greece, the international banking sector would be impacted by nervousness about a contagion in sovereign debt risk with the associated increase in interest rates and increased customer conservatism," CMC Markets chief analyst Ric Spooner told Fairfax.

The dollar hit a two-month low as European debt jitters continued to suck investment away from "risk assets" and into the US dollar. The Aussie was recently buying US $1.0446.

"The stronger US dollar has been driving the Australian dollar down, but I think it may be related somewhat to the uncertainty about what is happening with Greece, as they run out of euros and into US dollars," Richard Grace, chief currency strategist at the Commonwealth Bank told Fairfax. "It looks like it is a flow-related move that has gone through the market."

Asian markets were mixed this morning, with China continuing to buck the global downtrend. The Shanghai Composite was recently ahead 0.29%. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.86% this morning and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.81%. Dow futures were recently off 32 points or 0.27%.

Crude oil futures sagged another 61 cents or 0.7% to US $90.57 a barrel. Spot gold was $3 weaker at US $1,499.30 an ounce.


Good to see the rebound continue in Shanghai this morning but it's done zip for market sentiment here. Are we gloomy enough yet for a rally? Feels like it can't be far off. I'm pretty much sticking to quick scalps in this environment and forcing myself to wait longer than usual before buying. Had quick profits this morning in buying the lows in VLA, BLD and MML. No big wins but the scalps add up if you can pick enough of them. Still holding BLY, DOW and CMJ.