Daytrading June 26 afternoon

Thanks Oscar and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

The share market looks set to end lower for the week after investors pared their exposure ahead of another 'make-or-break' weekend for Greece.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 86 points or 1.5% lower at 5547 or more than 50 points below where it started the week. Property trusts were a major drag, falling 3.4% as many traded without their dividends. BHP was also a weight, falling more than 3% after announcing more jobs will go at Olympic Dam. The consumer staples sector bucked the downtrend, rising 0.8% as WOW rallied on takeover rumours.

Risk appetite on world markets has waned as this week progressed without Greece and its creditors reaching agreement on a new bailout deal. European finance chiefs are set to meet tomorrow for the fifth in a series of meetings over the last week and a bit.

"The world is waiting on another set of "last ditch" meetings with a general expectation that crisis will be averted but concerned that there is some room for doubt," CMC chief market analyst Ric Spooner told Fairfax. "The bottom line as far as today's trading is concerned may be to leave both buyers and sellers cautious."

China's Shanghai Composite sagged another 3.58%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.17% and Japan's Nikkei 0.46%. Dow futures were recently off seven points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures drifted five cents lower this morning to US$59.65 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.70 firmer at US$1,174.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 77.23 US cents.


This morning's scoreline: Fear 1, Greed 0. The scale of the retreat is exaggerated by stock-specific news in BHP and a lot of trusts trading ex-dividend, but it's still pretty impressive. Suggests not everyone is convinced that Syriza won't drive the Greek bus off the cliff. Trading: it's not often the market gives away free money, but there was a very brief opportunity this morning in AOG. Looked to me like one of the instos forgot to turn off a trading algorithm for ex-dividend day. The result was a fleeting chance to buy stock at a 9% discount, instead of the 3% it should have fallen to reflect the dividend. I scored a part-fill at $2.45 and sold about two minutes later. Would have posted an alert but it was all over in an instant. There was probably money to be made scalping the lows in the trusts, but my head is not fully in the game now. TGIF.