The All Ordinaries cracked 5000 for the first time in 22 months this morning before paring gains amid weakness in mining stocks.
At lunchtime the All Ords was two points or less than 0.1% ahead at 4982 after earlier hitting 5002, a level last seen in April 2011. The ASX 200 was one points or less than 0.1% higher at 4960.
Industrial stocks led the advance, rising 1% after equipment maker BKN surged 10% on an optimistic outlook for the year ahead. Resource stocks were the biggest weight, with the gold sector sagging 2.5%, metals & mining 0.5% and energy 0.2%.
"There's still quite an imbalance out there in investor land, with people holding too much cash and not enough shares," Baillieu Holst director Richard Morrow told Fairfax. "Some of the results out yesterday, especially JB Hi-Fi and the rally in the consumer sector, I think caused a few investors to panic to cover short positions and to rebuild weightings to the share market."
Also helping sentiment was a modest improvement in business confidence and conditions. NAB's confidence index for January rose to 3 from a reading of 2 in December. Conditions remained soft at -2, up from -5 in December.
Japan's Nikkei share index catapulted 2.44% this morning on hopes of further monetary easing. Shanghai and Hong Kong's Hang Seng remained closed for Lunar New Year holidays. Dow futures were recently down seven points or less than 0.1%.
Crude oil futures dipped nine cents to US$96.92 a barrel. Spot gold was $5 softer at US$1,645 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.027.
No respite for gold this morning. Downtrend continuing, for now at least. Offering a few opportunities if you don't mind trading oversolds for pips. EVN and SFR offered a few this morning. I also caught WCL when it slumped back to its opening price. ELK came good from yesterday.
