Australian shares this morning rallied for just the second time in six sessions as gains in commodity prices and well-received corporate earnings offset a soft end to last week in the US.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 41 points or 0.8% stronger at 5096, led by a 4.8% surge in gold stocks and solid rises in metals & mining +3%, materials +2.7%, industrials +0.8% and financials +0.3%. Health stocks slumped 1.1%, property trusts 0.5% and utilities 0.2%.
The gold sector was bolstered by a rise of more than 4% for index heavyweight NCM as the miner reported a $5.77 billion loss. Other companies to advance this morning after reporting results included COF, UGL, JBH and JHX.
Japan's Nikkei bounced off a six-week low following the back of an unexpectedly large slowdown in economic growth. The Nikkei was lately unchanged after growth slowed to an annualised 2.6% last quarter from a revised 3.8% at the start of the year. Shanghai advanced 1.3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng put on 1.58%. Dow futures were recently off six points or less than 0.1%.
Gold jagged higher this morning, with the spot price rising $15.20 to US$1,329.40 an ounce. Crude oil futures slipped 13 cents to US$105.90 a barrel. September copper eased two cents or 0.6% to $3.29 a pound. The dollar was buying 92.04 US cents.
Still plenty of bullishness at the spec end of the market despite the downturn in the overall index last week. Seems every day throws up one or two new runners. I was primed to buy BTR under 40c today, got distracted and missed the opportunity. Instead I snagged part-fills in ASB and DYE that will likely offer no more than subsistence cash. My income has been lumpier than usual lately - 90% of last week's profits came in two days of trading while I twiddled my thumbs on other days. Reminds me of the Woody Allen saying "80% of success is showing up". On the right days, that is.
