Because of the chaos and indecision in Canberra, the S&P/ASX 200 Index finished…….up for the day and week, although in after hours trade, the market has given back a lot of today’s gains in preparation for a likely flat night tonight on overseas equity markets.
The Aussie market gained nearly half a percent or 20 points and broke over the 4300 point barrier for the first time since early December to 4306 points:
We’ve been here before (late October, mid November 2011) the main difference being the market has breached, on a weekly basis, the 200 day moving average has crept above the 4300-4900 trading zone that I identified last year:
However, as I’ve mentioned before, do not count your chickens before Friday night, and my core thesis – a breakout from CBA and BHP – has not yet been satisfied.
On to other Asian markets, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 up 0.5% to 9647, building on its inverse head and shoulders breakout and looking a bit bubblicious for now. The volatile Hang Seng is currently flat at 21407 points with the Shanghai Composite up over 1% to 2440 points and continuing its breakout from its long term downtrend channel:
The AUD not only remained resilient through the Grand Space Opera unfolding, but jumped over 1 cent – probably on remarks by Captain Steven (where was your coverage of that today Mainstream Media?) that interest rates are to stay put for the time being. The commodity proxy/speculators delight is currently trading at 1.073 against the US Dollar.
Movers and Shakers
A mainly green board with consumer stocks piling on the gains, the laggard this time utility stocks as earnings season continues (and explains why this TD post is a bit late – apologies!)
Checking out the ASX8 (the top four banks and miners), ANZ gained over 0.5% breaking out resistance above $22 per share on the daily charts. As I said recently, it needs to close above this level at the end of the week to get to the next target at circa $25 per share. With today’s downgrade by Fitch putting the other 3 in line, this might be the relative bullishness it needs:
The big brother of banks, the Commonwealth (CBA) again finished flat for the day, as National Australia Bank (NAB) was up over 1%, continuing to go sideways whilst Westpac (WBC) was up 0.5%, clawing back yesterday’s losses also still technically in a sideways funk like NAB.
To the holes, where BHP Billiton (BHP) was up nearly 1% for the day but still going sideways in the medium term, stuck in a trading range with a potential bottom at $34 a share. Without a big rise in the Big Australian don’t count on the broader market moving anytime yet.
Its “twin” Rio Tinto (RIO), was also up nearly 1% and also remains in a trading range after trying to break free of its bearish downward bias, with resistance at $70 per share and support at $59 a share.
Gold miner Newcrest Mining (NCM) was sold off suddenly today on news its Lihir project has some problems – down well over 4%, but still technically in an uptrend, having risen almost 20% since the Xmas low.
To finish out the ASX8, Woodside Petroleum (WPL) slipped about half a percent after going a bit bubblish lately, probably going to retrace a bit but still follow the oil trend?
As I said at the top of the post, the overnight futures for the ASX200 are down around 20 points alongside mixed US and Euro equity futures.