Daytrading May 12 afternoon

Thanks Scarface and morning regulars.


Half-time round-up:

Australian stocks improved this morning for the first time in six sessions as rising resource shares outweighed weakness in yield sectors.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 22 points or 0.4% higher at 5647 after an uncertain morning when the index swung as high as 5660 and as low as 5616. I.T. +1.2%, gold +1.1%, materials +1.1% and metals & mining +0.9% were the pick of the sectors. Utilities fell 0.5%, property trusts 0.4%, telecoms 0.4% and health 0.3%. The financials sector was ahead 0.5%.  The declines came despite a wobbly night on overseas markets as bond prices reacted to uncertainty over Greece's debt crisis.

“Markets are increasingly nervous given where valuations are,” Matthew Sherwood, head of investment strategy at Perpetual, told Bloomberg. “Greece is going to be one of the markets’ key focuses this week. It has the potential to drag market sentiment.”

China's Shanghai Composite advanced 0.7%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.3% and Japan's Nikkei lost 0.62%. Dow futures were recently eight points or less than 0.1% lower.

Back home, the housing market showed no sign of losing momentum. Home loan approvals increased by 1.6% to 54,686 during March, beating expectations for an increase of 1%.

Crude oil futures retreated nine cents this morning to US$59.16 a barrel. Spot gold was $1.20 firmer at US$1,184.20 an ounce. The dollar was buying 79.18 US cents.


The index is slowly building a base around these levels. Wouldn't bet the ranch on it holding, but at least the slide has been arrested for now. Trading: the market offered what looked like two rolled-gold bounce opportunities this morning in MBN and TPI. The former behaved beautifully - easy profit. TPI has more institutional money at play and is taking a lot longer. I had to double-dip to guarantee a profit. Sold half but still think the reaction to the CEO's departure looks overdone. Market apparently doesn't buy the official explanation. Also took IFN.