Shares have rallied for the ninth time in ten sessions as winners continued to outweigh losers in the latest domestic earnings season.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 27 points or 0.5% higher at 5420 despite a mixed morning in Asia and tepid US futures. Industrials +1.3% and utilities +1.2% were the best of the sectors following well-received earnings from the likes of BXB, SEK and APA. Other post-results rallies included SEK, RIC, ARP and BGA. Investors took a stick to MGX, DSH, SXL, TME, AOG, REC and TOL.
"The market has had a good run in the past week," Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG, told Bloomberg. "Unless we've got continuing catalysts to push the market higher, investors will stay on the sidelines."
Asian markets were mixed. China's Shanghai Composite put on 0.09%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.21% and Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.66%. Emini Dow futures were recently down 13 points or 0.1%.
Crude oil futures improved another 17 cents this morning to US$102.83 a barrel. Spot gold was $4.70 weaker at US$1,317.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 90.11 US cents.
Been a breathtaking rally off the early-Feb low. The market has averaged about 35 points or roughly 0.7% a session for 10 days. That's extremely unusual. Another couple of sessions like that and the XJO is at five-and-a-half-year highs. If I sound chipper it's because I've emerged from a long dark trading tunnel. Had the good fortune to get caught in the PBT trading halt. A fluky profit for a trader - could have gone either way - but it makes up for some of those capital raisings, unexpected profit warnings, etc, that I've copped over the years. To prove how much trading is a confidence game, I bagged two nice scalps in FRR and CMG to complete the best morning in months. Good to be back in the winner's circle.
