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Late, late late... spent the day looking at some footage which, if it ever saw a courtroom, would be make for the most explosive session in the history of Australian jurisprudence. I said at the time, no retard can shoot that good.
It was a "green number" day for much of the resources sector - particularly Energy-related stocks, which was among the hottest market sectors, gaining 1.04% for the day.
WMC Resources (WMR) continues to benefit from the board's refusal to accept the XStrata bid (which values the company at $7.4 billion, or $6.35 a share); the shares finished unchanged at $7.26, having been as high as $7.32 (a gain of 0.8%). People are still punting on the arrival of some other White Knight, or an improved offer from XStrata... XStrata should ust tell the WMR board to get stuffed, and see how their stock options go... but since senior executives around the globe are as thick as theives, it's unlikely.
Rio Tinto (RIO) rose 0.56% to $9.16 after being down earlier in the session, while BHP Billiton (BHP) fell 0.77% to $15.28, after rising a lazy 8% last week after its buyback was announced.
Why a buyback? Why not a special dividend? Answer: executive options.
If you give shareholders cash in the form of dividends, nothing much happens to the stock price as a result, and the bucketloads of options in the executive compensation system simply stagnate. These options, it must be remembered, represent a hugely leveraged, one-sided bet on the stock price, which encourages risky behaviour and short-term, stock-price focussed planning.
A buyback, on the other hand, gives investors a sense that there is a "Management Put" - similar to the "Greenspan Put" from when folks believed in central-wanker omniscience - whereby downside risk to the stock price is mitigated by the fact that there is an unnaturally large bid for the stock as a result of the buyback.
Also on the buyback rumour mill, talk that Fosters Group (FGL) would rather waste company cash on buying back almost 10% of its issued stock - $1 billion worth - in preference to giving people tax-effective distributions in the form of dividends (there's that executive options package thing again) gave FGL legs to the tune of 2.8% with the stock rising to $5.50 - a new 52 week high (in fact, the highest level in three years).
Retailers like Woolworths (WOW +1.8% to $15.09) and Coles-Myer (CML, +1.4% to $10.03) helped the Consumer Staples sector to shine.
Consumer Staples... God stab my vitals. Wasn't it better before they introduced these wanker sector labels? What was wrong with Coles being a retail stock? Does Myer or Grace Brothers sell "staples"? The marketing-degree-holding dickhead who introduced GICS to the ASX should be hung by his feet in the town square, a la Mussolini.
Major Market Indices
Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
XAO | All Ordinaries | 3938.1 | 15.2 | 0.39% | 473.67m |
XTL | S&P/ASX 20 | 2094.9 | 10 | 0.48% | 92.6m |
XFL | S&P/ASX 50 | 3856.8 | 16 | 0.42% | 155.9m |
XTO | S&P/ASX 100 | 3186.3 | 12.3 | 0.39% | 255.09m |
XJO | S&P/ASX 200 | 3926.8 | 14.7 | 0.38% | 354.97m |
XKO | S&P/ASX 300 | 3935.8 | 14.3 | 0.36% | 419.27m |
XMD | S&P/ASX Mid-Cap 50 | 3859.5 | 7.1 | 0.18% | 99.19m |
XSO | S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries | 2314.4 | 3.9 | 0.17% | 164.18m |
Market Internals
Although the All Ords rose an apparently-solid 0.38% to a new high, the market breadth contracted slightly, with advancers and decliners in equal numbers within the index.
Volume was concentrated in the advancers by about 5:3 (252m to 153m), with a solid 23million shares volume in Telstra - about 10% of advancing volume in one stock.
Advances | 197 | |
Declines | 197 | |
Advancing Volume (m) | 251.68 | |
Declining Volume (m) | 153.22 |
S&P/ASX200 GICS Sector Indices
Code | GICS Sector | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
XEJ | Energy | 7284.6 | 75.1 | 1.04% | 34.03m |
XMJ | Materials | 6565.2 | -17.1 | -0.26% | 85.72m |
XNJ | Industrials | 4702.2 | 18.8 | 0.4% | 37.81m |
XDJ | Consumer Discretionary | 2327.9 | 20.6 | 0.89% | 30.26m |
XSJ | Consumer Staples | 5438.2 | 76.6 | 1.43% | 28.21m |
XHJ | Healthcare | 4395.9 | 12.1 | 0.28% | 7.36m |
XFJ | Financials | 4640.2 | 9.8 | 0.21% | 98.93m |
XIJ | Information Technology | 370.4 | 4.1 | 1.12% | 4.51m |
XTJ | Telecommunications | 1746.9 | 22.4 | 1.3% | 23.69m |
XUJ | Utilities | 4292.5 | -25.5 | -0.59% | 4.45m |
XPJ | Property Trusts | 1763.2 | 1 | 0.06% | 46.04m |
XXJ | ASX200 ex Property Trusts | 4643.3 | 11.8 | 0.25% | 52.88m |
All Ordinaries Volume Leaders
Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
TLS | Telstra | 4.91 | 0.06 | 1.24% | 23.15m |
NLX | Nylex Ltd | 0.4 | 0.01 | 2.6% | 16.53m |
MUL | Multiemedia Com | 0.032 | 0 | 0% | 15.03m |
HHG | HHG Plc | 1.17 | 0.01 | 0.86% | 14.53m |
HDR | Hardman Rsc | 1.85 | -0.12 | -6.09% | 14.16m |
All Ordinaries Top 5 % Gainers
Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
BBB | B Digital | 0.45 | 0.05 | 11.11% | 524762 |
HWE | Henry Walker Elt | 0.52 | 0.05 | 10.64% | 9.48m |
SST | Steamships Tradg | 3.2 | 0.3 | 10.34% | 2300 |
PME | Pro Medicus | 1.21 | 0.11 | 10% | 210600 |
ARQ | Arc Energy | 1.38 | 0.09 | 6.98% | 1.31m |
All Ordinaries Top 5 % Losers
Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
PEPR | Peplin Rights | 0.011 | -0.01 | -45% | 1.68m |
SSS | Sam's Seafood | 1.2 | -0.2 | -14.29% | 110075 |
ALK | Alkane | 0.19 | -0.02 | -7.32% | 682358 |
IHG | Intellect Hldgs | 0.04 | 0 | -6.98% | 3.37m |
TIR | Titan Rsc | 0.21 | -0.02 | -6.67% | 640500 |
Elsewhere in the Region...
It was Monday... we are all Americans now...
Country | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
New Zealand | NZSE50 | 2988.304 | 19.81 | 0.67% | 15.42m |
Japan | Nikkei 225 | 10977.89 | 144.14 | 1.33% | 73906 |
Korea | KOSPI | 865.4 | 7.28 | 0.85% | 315897 |
Singapore | Straits Times | 2037.93 | 9.5 | 0.47% | 70.32m |
Hong Kong | Hang Seng | 14092.86 | 197.83 | 1.42% | 182.05m |
Malaysia | KLSE Comp | 913.47 | 4.69 | 0.52% | 75.44m |
Main SFE Futures Contracts
Code | Instrument | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
SPI04Z | SPI200 Index SFE | 3939 | 13 | 0.33% | 9093 |
IR04Z | 90-day Bank Bills SFE | 94.68 | 0.05 | 0.05% | 60633 |
YT04Z | 3-yr Bond SFE | 94.98 | 0.04 | 0.04% | 73633 |
XT04Z | 10-yr Bond SFE | 94.77 | 0.03 | 0.03% | 18895 |