Shares declined for a third day as poorly-received earnings from market heavyweights CBA and CSL helped drag the index further from last week's near-seven-year high.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 36 points or 0.6% in the red at 5766 on one of the biggest days of the domestic corporate reporting season. CBA was the biggest weight on the index, pulling the financials sector 0.3% lower. Health was the worst of the sectors, tumbling 3.9% as index component CSL fell more than 8%. OZL, SUN and MCR were other companies to lose ground after delivering profit updates. DMP, AGL, SGP, GMA and LEI rallied on their results.
The decline came despite strong domestic economic data, including a jump in consumer confidence and better-than-expected home loans. Optimists outnumbered pessimists this month for the first time in a year, according to the WBC-MI index of consumer sentiment. The index rallied 8% to 100.7. Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said the result was "much stronger than we had expected" and attributed the jump to falling fuel prices and a Reserve Bank rate cut. Home loans increased 2.7% during December from the month before, exceeding expectations for a rise of 2%.
China's Shanghai Composite edged up 0.34% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.1%. Trading on Japan's Nikkei was suspended for a public holiday. Dow futures were recently ahead five points or less than 0.1%.
Crude oil futures bounced 74 cents this morning to US$50.76 a barrel. Spot gold rose $4.50 to US$1,236.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.92 US cents.
Plenty of room for profit-taking at these levels, so no great surprise to see the market pulling back. Personally I wish it would do it with a bit more vigour. I got nothing today but a repetitive strain disorder from flicking through charts in search of a trade. Had a close look at both DML and OIL but wanted each a pip lower. Should have caught the second bounce in CSL but was distracted when the opportunity came. Regrets, I've had a few...
