daytrading may 14 afternoon

Thanks Endless.

Half-time round-up:

The share market gave back some of yesterday's gains as several market heavyweights traded without their dividends, offsetting a record high for CBA following a profit update.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was trading 15 points or 0.3% lower at 5483 with utilities -1%, health -0.8% and financials -0.7% the biggest drags. The financials sector reversed retreated as WBC, NAB and MQG traded without their dividends. CBA rallied 0.7% after announcing a third-quarter profit of $2.2 billion, up from $1.9 billion last year. Property trusts was the best of the sectors, rising 0.7%, ahead of industrials +0.4% and telecoms +0.3%.

Citi analysts identified several 'winners' from last night's budget: "Of the initiatives, the $11.6b infrastructure spending increase seems to represent a substantial rise on previous projections, and stands to benefit the engineering and construction stocks, and those more involved in road and rail projects, like LEI and LLC. The co-payment for medical visits is also expected to benefit providers, like PRY and SHL. More broadly, the high income earner levy and petrol excise indexation may dampen sales for retailers somewhat, and inside we list these and other measures and their potential impact on individual stocks."

Asian markets were mixed. China's Shanghai Composite slid 0.34%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.24% and Japan's Nikkei lost 0.35%. Dow futures were recently up five points or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures edged up three cents this morning to US$101.97 a barrel. Spot gold was 30 cents lower at US$1,293.50 an ounce. The dollar was buying 93.81 US cents.


Interesting to note that every one of the four stocks identified by Citi as benefitting from the federal budget is trading lower. Go figure. I took PRY when the selling seemed to be getting silly. Sold a few but still have most. Was in and out of CAJ for a couple of pips early on, another share possibly suffering the budget blues. Back in now. GPT coming good from yesterday, but it's a tortoise.