Daytrading June 21 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning crew.


Half-time round-up:

Australian stocks rose for a third session as a global rebound continued in Asia despite on-going jitters over the prospect of Britain quitting the European Union.

At 1pm EST the ASX 200 was two points or less than 0.1% stronger at 5259 after earlier touching a one-week high at 5290. Most of the gains dissipated as crude oil pared overnight gains, pressuring energy stocks. The energy sector was last down 2.3% after West Texas Intermediate crude retreated 22 cents or 0.45% to US$49.15 a barrel.

Other drags on the index included materials -0.8%, metals & mining -0.7% and gold -0.3%. The session's best gains came in health +1%, IT +0.9%, and industrials +0.7%.

US stocks rallied overnight, but closed below their lows after a poll showed UK voters may still vote to abandon the EU on Thursday night. Europe's benchmark index saw its biggest rally since August.

“The markets have a myopic focus on one thing: the UK referendum vote,” Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG, told Bloomberg. “All the euphoria of yesterday has seemingly abated and we hit the refresh button. We almost need to take this week one day at a time, such is the nervousness around trading.”

Asian markets extended yesterday's gains. China's Shanghai Composite improved 0.39%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.35% and Japan's Nikkei 0.51%. Dow futures were recently ahead 32 points or 0.18%.

Gold futures dipped $2 or 0.15% this morning to US$1,290.10 an ounce. The dollar was buying 74.82 US cents.


With the dazzling exception of RFT, not a morning to buy the open. Everything seemed to run out of puff quite quickly. I waited for NAG and traded that fairly brief bounce. Got something out of it but should have done better. B+ for the entry (average 19c-ish), C for the exit (20c). Swung and missed at RFT. Been a thoroughly mediocre start to the week.