Daytrading June 24 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

The Australian share market inched towards a fourth straight rise this morning as regional markets discounted the prospect that tonight's Greek debt talks might fail at the last hurdle.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 18 points or 0.3% higher at 5702 with gains in financials +0.7%, materials +0.4% and energy +0.5% offsetting falls in gold -1.9%, consumer discretionary -0.4%, utilities -0.4% and industrials -0.4%.

Asian markets reflected optimism that Greece is close to securing a new bailout deal.

“We have now seen enough progress for the finishing line to have become visible,” Erik Nielsen, economist for Unicredit in the UK, told Bloomberg. “Failure from here is difficult to envisage. This means that various liquidity measures will be employed, as needed, until it’s all signed off - and the risk of arrears has significantly declined.”

China's Shanghai Composite rose 1.75%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.19% and Japan's Nikkei 0.54%. Dow futures were recently off one point or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures rallied 13 cents this morning to US$61.14 a barrel. Spot gold was 80 cents ahead at US$1,177.40 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.42 US cents.


Trading: caught the bounce in PLS but missed the more lucrative opportunity in VTX. Small speculator in FLT but it doesn't look like they'll let it run today. It bounced well on the third day after the last profit downgrade (December), but there is no guarantee that history will repeat.