Daytrading July 29 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

The last session of a strong month for Australian equities reached halfway little changed as traders held off on big bets ahead of this afternoon's much-anticipated Bank of Japan policy announcement.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was two points or less than 0.1% ahead at 5559 after a morning locked in a tight 21-point range. At this morning's peak, the benchmark index had put on 337 points during its fourth monthly advance since the market bottomed in February.

Gains in health stocks +1%, industrials +0.7% and consumer discretionary +0.6% were offset by declines in energy -1%, metals & mining -0.9% and materials -0.8%. The directionless morning reflected a wide divergence of opinion regarding the outcome of today's BoJ policy meeting after the governor of the central bank downplayed the likelihood that the bank will announce a round of 'helicopter money'.

“There’s been a reasonable amount of uncertainty as evidenced by the contrasting views in the market in the run-up to the meeting,” Chris Green, director of economics and strategy at First NZ Capital Group, told Bloomberg. “There’s increasing pressure to ease further from here. We’re likely to see some sort of coordinated action between the BOJ and the government.”

The Nikkei was lately off 0.4%, China's Shanghai Composite 0.44% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.53%. Dow futures were ahead by nine points or 0.05%.

Crude oil futures eased another three cents or 0.07% this morning to US$41.11 a barrel. Gold futures were $3 or 0.22% firmer at US$1,344.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying 75.4 US cents.


Sluggish morning, but potential fireworks this afternoon. Anyone know when the BoJ announces? Trading: Chunky pips from AYR and KKL for a good end to a good week. Been a choppy month at this trading desk, but all's well that end's well.