daytrading june 25 afternoon

Hello all. Thanks Haplo, Michelef and Gttrain.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares rallied for the first time in four sessions before paring gains as resource stocks floundered and China's benchmark index extended yesterday's plunge.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was nine points or 0.2% ahead at 4679 after earlier falling as low as 4656 and rising as high as 4688. A positive morning for yield stocks saw utilities rise 1.2%, consumer staples 1.1%, financials 0.7% and telecoms 0.7%. Gold was once again the worst of the sectors, losing 2.7%, followed by metals & mining -1.1% and energy -1.1%.

The declines came despite upbeat US futures and rallies in Japan and Hong Kong. Dow futures were recently up 38 points or nearly 0.3% following rises of 0.54% on Hong Kong's Hang Seng and 0.64% on Japan's Nikkei. The Shanghai Composite slid another 1.11% as traders continued to fret about signs of a cash squeeze as interbank lending rates remained at elevated levels.

"The Chinese central bank is sacrificing short-term pain for long-term sustainable growth," Matthew Sherwood, head of investment market research at Perpetual, told Bloomberg. "Investors continue to come to grips with the concept of reduced central-bank support in the US and a credit squeeze in China and what this means for global growth and asset prices."

Crude oil futures were trading at US$94.87 a barrel. Spot gold was at US$1,285.30 an ounce. The dollar was buying 92.48 US cents.


I'd almost forgotten our market came in this colour. Be nice if the XSO tried it now and then - it's down 0.6% and on track for a fourth straight loss. I'm having a low-wattage day after a big night out and opted to keep my fingers off the buy button for most of the morning. However, the sell-off in LNC cracked my resolve and I'm in just above 80 cents. Today is starting to look like a selling climax. May hold some overnight if the rebound gathers pace.