daytrading march 31 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

Shares pushed to a two-and-a-half-week high this morning as institutional traders massaged their portfolios on the last trading day of the quarter.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 44 points or 0.8% ahead at 5411 and within reach of its third gain in four sessions. A broad rally saw all sectors improve, led by gains in gold +1.8%, metals & mining +1.2%, materials +1.2% and property trusts +1.1%.

"Two words can describe the ASX 200 today: 'window' & 'dressing'," David Scutt, treasury dealer at Arab Bank Australia, tweeted. Window dressing refers to the practice of mutual fund and portfolio managers manipulating holdings at the end of the quarter to improve the performance of the portfolio/fund before quarterly reports are sent to clients or shareholders.

Also helping market sentiment were benign inflation figures and a rise in home sales announced this morning. Consumer prices rose 0.2% this month to leave the annual inflation rate unchanged at 2.7%, within the Reserve Bank's 2-3% target band. Sales of new homes jumped 4.6% in February from the month, near a three-year high.

Asian markets were boosted by strong US futures ahead of a new week. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallied 0.31% and Japan's Nikkei 0.5%. China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.22%. Emini Dow futures were recently up 55 points or more than 0.3%.

Crude oil futures eased 22 cents this morning to US$101.45 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.10 stronger at US$1,298 an ounce. The dollar was buying 92.57 US cents.


Not sure why US futures are so strong, but it's a promising sign for the week. Good chance the fundies will support our market through to the close and then - if history is any guide - dump a lot of the window dressing tomorrow. My trading was all about I-shares for a second day: IBY and IPP look to be coming good from Friday, I scalped a bounce in IIN and had a small speculator in ISN.