Stocks crawled higher this morning as gains in banks offset a tepid profit result from BHP.
At lunchtime the ASX 200 was up nine points or 0.2% at 4283, reversing some of the losses that followed the Reserve Bank's decision yesterday to leave the cash rate on hold. IT (+1.2%) topped the sector gains, ahead of energy +0.8%, property trusts +0.7% and health +0.7%. The metals & mining sector eased 0.2% after BHP's first-half profit of $US9.94 million fell marginally short of expectations.
"The [BHP] result was in line pretty much," Hayden Bairstow, an analyst with CLSA, told Fairfax. "The underlying earnings number was a bit below but that was largely due to tax charges a bit higher than we had [predicted]."
An index of regional stocks rallied for a third day as investors continued to bet that Greece will muddle through its debt crisis. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was recently up 0.1%. Japan's Nikkei put on 0.6%, Shanghai lost 0.18% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.62%. Dow futures were recently down nine points or 0.1%.
Crude oil futures rallied nine cents this morning to US$98.80 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.90 softer at US$1,747 an ounce. The dollar was buying US$1.0786.
Plenty of runners this morning, but I successfully avoided all of them. Instead I opted for a gone-nowhere trade in AIX and missed a few more. Annoyed at failing to recognise how strong the initial short-covering rally in GNS would be. An obvious buy in hindsight. Will now wait for some stability before taking another look.
