Take-over action, a dip in the U.S. dollar and a record profit from ANZ helped the Australian share market recoup yesterday's losses this morning.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 47 points or 1% at 4695 led by property trusts, up 1.9% after GMG bid for IIF, and financials, up 1.5% after ANZ revealed a $5.13 billion profit. The big miners also rallied as the U.S. dollar eased from its overnight high.
"We saw some good results yesterday from NAB and that's been followed up with ANZ today, coming in above consensus in terms of underlying profit, and also beating expectations in terms of the dividend," CMC Markets senior dealer Matthew Lewis told Fairfax.
Shares in the ING Industrial Fund jumped 16% after Goodman Group this morning revealed a $1.48 billion takeover offer for the property investor. The offer is conditional and non-binding. GMG was recently up 3%.
The dollar edged higher this morning as an overnight bounce in the U.S. dollar faded. The dollar was recently buying 97.44 cents. The U.S. dollar index was down .15 or 0.2% at 77.95
Asian markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.07%, Shanghai was up 0.07% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng ahead 0.54%. Dow futures were recently at -4. Gold and oil were unchanged.
A much stronger morning than I'd anticipated, thanks to a happy combination of supportive factors. For me, some days are about making money, others about protecting profits. I carried a couple of losing trades into today and was happy to exit both for minor losses (got caught in FRG yesterday and ARU just ahead of the trading halt for a capital raising). Offset those losses with a quick bounce trade in MGY and the recovery in KAR. Been a slowish morning but I'm enjoying the breather after three very intense trading days.
