A new 12-year high for Telstra and well-received earnings from Fairfax and Crown Resorts helped the share market advance for the third time in four sessions.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 36 points or 0.65% ahead at 5550 as the market continued to claw back losses suffered during last week's sharp retreat. At its peak this morning this index was more than 120 points higher than Friday's low. I.T. +3% was the best of the sectors, followed by health +2.4% and telecoms +2.1%. Materials and metals and mining were the only sectors to lose ground this morning.
Earnings season continued to dominate the headlines, with TLS, FXJ and CWN among companies rising after reporting this morning. MCR and AQZ also saw post-earnings gains. SGN and CAB were among those that fell.
The rally followed overnight gains on Wall Street as a decline in retail sales growth dampened fears that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates early next year.
“Even though the Fed is changing the way they talk about rates, we are still far away from seeing higher interest rates,” Donald Williams, chief investment officer at Platypus Asset Management in the US, told Bloomberg. “As long as rates stay low, which could be still a couple of years, equities will remain well bid.”
Asian markets were mixed. China's Shanghai Composite lost 0.12% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.06%. Japan's Nikkei gained 0.6%. Dow futures were recently up four points or less than 0.1%.
Crude oil futures eased a cent this morning to US$97.30 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.10 lower at US$1,310.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying 92.98 US cents.
Decent morning at the top end of the market, but precious little movement further down the food-chain. I scratched half a wage out of BML and that's it for the morning. Good to see some of the beaten-up former favourites like YRR, NEN, MEO and TON rising on cue. Small position in the first of those from yesterday.
