daytrading march 30 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares have once again ignored weak overnight leads and falls across much of Asia to push to fresh 2012 highs on the last trading day of the quarter.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 16 points or 0.4% at 4354, its highest point since mid-November. Mining stocks took the lead during a flat morning for financials. The materials sector rallied 1.3% versus no change in financials. Property trusts, utilities, IT and energy and gold stocks lost ground.

"We've made a break to the upside. It's positive whichever way you look at it," Bell Potter senior adviser Stuart Smith told Fairfax.

The ASX 200 looks likely to end the quarter more than 7% ahead, compared to rises of more than 19% for Japan's benchmark and 10% in South Korea.

Asian markets were mixed this morning. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.23% after a 1.2% dip in industrial production last month. Shanghai rallied 0.18% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.65%. Dow futures were recently up 38 points or 0.3%.

Crude oil futures rebounded 17 cents this morning to US$103.44 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.20 higher at US$1,663.70 an ounce. The dollar was buying US$1.0406.


All of a sudden you can't keep this market down. End of quarter may have something to do with it but it's a relief to see the XJO outperform this week. I haven't really had my head on the job this morning after a nice bottle of red last night. Watching a few but no trades as yet.