daytrading oct 5 afternoon

Thanks Gttrain.

Half-time round-up:

Solid gains in Asia and a rebound in resource stocks helped the Australian share market push towards a seventh winning session and a fresh 14-month high this morning.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was ahead 29 points or almost 0.7% at 4482 with all sectors rising except IT (-0.5%). Gold stocks jumped 2.9%, metals & mining 1.6% and consumer staples 1.4%.

"We had a reasonable lead from the US overnight and commodity prices were were up as well which has resulted in strong moves in the resources space," RBS Morgans Brisbane private client adviser Craig Walker told Fairfax. "The major banks are holding their own today too."

Asian markets and US futures moved higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.42% and Japan's Nikkei put on 0.4%. Shanghai remained closed for a week-long national holiday. Dow futures were recently up 19 points or more than 0.1%.

The slowdown in Australian construction accelerated in September as the industry contracted for a 28th month, according to figures released this morning. The AIG performance of construction index deteriorated to 30.9 from 32.2 in August.

Crude oil futures slipped three cents this morning to US$91.52 a barrel. Spot gold was $2.60 stronger at US$1,794.90 an ounce. The dollar was buying $US1.0272.


The All Ords is butting up against its May 2012 closing high now. A possible top or do we sail on through? The horizon is clearer than it has been for an eternity, but after seven straight gains we're overdue a pullback. The market will find an excuse soon enough. I bailed on BBG early in the session when it became clear there would no swift rebound. Good luck to holders - the BBG story has had more twists this year than a pretzel factory. Caught a bounce in BRG and struggled to find much else. Volumes remain insipid across most of the bourse.