Note: Coverage of overnight markets will now be done as “Market Morning” before the Asian markets open. Trading Day will focus on the Asian session and Australian stocks.
Following the lead on overnight markets, the S&P/ASX 200 Index rallied strongly on the open and maintained the high, closing up 2% or 86 points to 4139 today.
If this level holds (i.e does not go below 4050 points), the range of higher lows forming a trendline from the early October bottom is quite bullish in the short to medium term.
However, a failure to breach the 4350 point resistance level (which also equates roughly to the long term mvoing average) would see the market snap back and remain in its trading range of 4000 to 4300 points, as seen on the monthly chart below:
In after hours trading, the SPI futures have slipped 13 points before the European open.
The gains on other Asian equity markets were good, but not as exuberant. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.3% to 8446 points, whilst the volatile Hang Seng gained nearly 1.5% to 18349 points. The Shanghai Composite is currently up about 7 points or 0.35%, trading at 2223 points. Yesterday I mentioned some evidence of a bottom forming, but it appears weak so far, with the price still hovering around the 2200 mark.
The AUD gained another 0.5% today, moving well above 1.01 against the USD, whilst WTI crude was also up 0.5%, and is currently trading at $97.80USD a barrel.
Gold built on the gains overnight and was bid up another $10USD an ounce in the Asian session, now at $1627, but still remaining under its long term trendline, as seen in the weekly chart below. In Australian dollars, the shiny metal slipped and is at $1602AUD an ounce.
Movers and Shakers
Green across the bourse, with very light volume causing some jumps amidst the Santa sentiment. The best sector was materials, up over 3%, whilst the worst was REIT, only up 0.8%.
The banks were all solidly bid up over 2%, with ANZ up 2.1%, Commonwealth (CBA) also up 2.1%, National Australia Bank (NAB) up nearly 3% and Westpac (WBC) just over 2 percent.
Macquarie (MQG) also heard the call, up nearly 3% and just above $24 per share whilst profit takers, err, took profit on healthcare favourite Cochlear (COH), down just over 2% after yesterday’s epic rise of over 16%, finishing right on $63 a share.
Meanwhile, its “twin” CSL was bid up 1.5%, finishing at $32.50 a share and the other market darling Telstra (TLS) was up just under 1% on very light volume.
To the resources, and glory be to the ore gods, as BHP Billiton (BHP) finally put on a good day, up nearly 3%, whilst its “twin” Rio Tinto (RIO) was up 2.5% for the day.
Gold miner Newcrest Mining (NCM) had a stonking day with the monkeys out in force picking bottoms, bidding it up over 5% whilst, Fortescue (FMG) was up 3% and to finish out the ASX8, Woodside Petroleum (WPL) was the weakest only up 1.2%, still at depressed levels.
Defensive stocks Wesfarmers (WES) and Woolworths (WOW) saw some excellent bids, the former finishing up 2.2%, whilst the latter was up just over 1%
As for what lies ahead, overnight futures are pointing to some small gains on Euro and US markets, but we’ll see if Santa has any gas left in the reindeers to keep this going.