Trading Day

Advertisement

The S&P/ASX 200 Index jumped on the open again today, but was slowly sold off before the 2pm turn when a flurry of bids were made, probably on positive leads from other Asian markets. The bourse finished up 24 points or 0.6% to finish at 4239 points:

The market still needs to clear the 4300 area (the nexus of the bearish pennant/horizontal resistance/200 day moving average) to continue as a technical bear market rally, with a probable target up to 4700 points, the mid-point of the higher trading range from 2009-mid 2011:

Advertisement

Other Asian markets had different results, but all up, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 striding forward, up 1.4% or 119 points to 8758, the volatile Hang Seng currently up 50 points or 0.2% to 19992 points whilst the Shanghai Composite is also up, currently some 15 points or 0.6% to 2310, building on its recent gains and trying to breach resistance at 2325 points.

The AUD was flat, currently trading at 1.0406 against the USD, whilst WTI crude was similarly weakly bid, up 29 cents to $100.68USD a barrel.

Gold continued the weakness, only up $2, currently at $1657USD an ounce or $1592 AUD per ounce.

Advertisement

Movers and Shakers
Green mainly across the board today, with energy and materials doing the best, whilst consumer staples and utilities (the so called defensives) sold off slightly.

The banks were fairly weak, with ANZ a solid mover, up 0.3% but still refusing to breaking out of its bullish rectangle pattern, the big brother of banks, the Commonwealth (CBA) was flat, still looking for a good breakout above $50 a share, but no dice yet.

National Australia Bank (NAB) finished exactly even whilst Westpac (WBC) was at least ready to party, even still only up 0.4% and still fairly flat on the charts.

Advertisement

Moving on, and Macquarie (MQG) saw some more bids, building on yesterday’s move, up over 3% but still flat on the charts, still needing to breach $25 a share:

Healthcare favourite Cochlear (COH) slipped almost 1% but still remaining on trend whilst its “twin” CSL came back again, some 0.3% but not moving much overall, in a neutral stance for now. Telstra (TLS) saw some bids, gaining almost 1% finding strong support at the $3.30 level and remaining in a medium term uptrend.

Advertisement

To the resources, where BHP Billiton (BHP) was up again, around 0.4% and now above resistance at $37 a share, where this breakout should be very bullish for the stock, and the broader index.

Meanwhile, its “twin” Rio Tinto (RIO), was up even stronger, over 1% and in a good short term uptrend, gold miner Newcrest Mining (NCM) slipping 0.8% as gold goes nowhere for now, whilst Fortescue (FMG) was proving volatile again, up nearly 3%.

To finish out the ASX8, Woodside Petroleum (WPL) saw some good bids again, up 1.5% and still trying to climb out of its sideways funk.

Advertisement

Finishing up with the defensive stocks Wesfarmers (WES) slipped again, still hobbling around $30 a share, whilst Woolworths (WOW) fell nearly 1% again and broke through support just above $25 per share.

A flurry of overnight data on the US and Euro markets tonight could see some volatility going into the weekend. It appears that a genuine “risk-on” rally is in the wings for the first quarter of 2012, with US markets leading, our bourse lagging mainly due to the continued AUD strength.

www.twitter.com/ThePrinceMB

Advertisement