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Major Market Indices
If today's price action looks a tad artifical to you, then you're not alone.
Markets that do bugger-all until lunchtime on a Friday, and then float upwards like a helium filled balloon, are not sending genuine price signals.
Both the All Ords and the ASX200 did next-to-nothing until after 12:30 a.m.; they opened with the most feeble little spurt upwards that you could ever imagine, and by noon all three indices were showing the sort of tepid gains that folks have come to expect of a Friday: a modest rise, followed by a long lunch and an early exit.
Then somebody leant on their keyboard and kept buying all afternoon. But get hold of a chart and look at the last ten minutes; you will see that someone smaert started positioning themselves short. Using the Friday afternoon thin markets was a cheap way to execute the "pump" to get the indices up to a nice entry level for shorts.
The broad market - the ASX All Ordinaries - rose by 29.70 points (0.73%), finishing at 4116.40 points. The index hit an intraday high of 4121.30and its low was 4086.7.
The Index that forms the cash basis for the SFE's Share Price Index Futures - the S&P/ASX 200 - rose by 33.60 points (0.82%), finishing at 4130.50 points.
The "heavy hitters" of the Australian market - the ASX 20 Leaders - rose by 24.50 points (1.11%), finishing at 2230.80 points. Within the index members, there were 19 that rose, and just 1 loser (CML). Total volume in rising issues within the ASX20 amounted to 169.23 while volume in the losers totalled 15.33m units.
The major winners in the "big guns" were -
- QBE Insurance Group (QBE), +$0.42 (2.89%) to $14.97 on volume of 3.29m shares;
- Alumina (AWC), +$0.13 (2.24%) to $5.93 on volume of 6.78m shares;
- Woolworths (WOW), +$0.27 (1.83%) to $15.02 on volume of 4.04m shares;
- Commonwealth Bank Of Australia. (CBA), +$0.55 (1.55%) to $35.95 on volume of 5.33m shares; and
- BHP Billiton (BHP), +$0.28 (1.53%) to $18.60 on volume of 33.9m shares.
As I said, CML was the sole loser in the big-guns:
- Coles Myer Ltd. (CML), -$0.06 (0.64%) to $9.35 on volume of 15.33m shares.
At the smaller end of the market's capitalisation scale, the ASX Small Ordinaries Index - the only place where underexploited value exists with any regularity - rose by 6.90 points (0.29%), finishing at 2354.60 points. The major winners in the "pop-guns" were -
- Primelife Corporation (PLF), +$0.11 (10.28%) to $1.18 on volume of 240,000 shares;
- Virotec International (VTI), +$0.06 (9.38%) to $0.70 on volume of 744,000 shares;
- Bendigo Mining (BDG), +$0.08 (8.42%) to $1.03 on volume of 1.69m shares;
- Keycorp (KYC), +$0.11 (6.75%) to $1.74 on volume of 54,000 shares; and
- Fleetwood Corporation (FWD), +$0.55 (6.72%) to $8.73 on volume of 383,000 shares.
The losingest-little-guys for the session were (in order of decline):
- AV Jennings Homes (AVJ), -$0.12 (8.11%) to $1.36 on volume of 424,000 shares;
- Integrated Group (IWF), -$0.19 (7.34%) to $2.40 on volume of 268,000 shares; and
- Village Life Ltd (VLL), -$0.13 (6.67%) to $1.82 on volume of 514,000 shares;
- Southern Cross Broadcasting (Australia) (SBC), -$0.84 (5.48%) to $14.50 on volume of 424,000 shares; and
- Capral Aluminium (CAA), -$0.11 (5.29%) to $1.97 on volume of 107,000 shares.
| Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| XAO | All Ordinaries | 4116.4 | 29.7 | 0.73% | 756.68m |
| XTL | S&P/ASX 20 | 2230.8 | 24.5 | 1.11% | 184.56m |
| XFL | S&P/ASX 50 | 4079.3 | 39.3 | 0.97% | 0 |
| XTO | S&P/ASX 100 | 3358.3 | 28.5 | 0.86% | 0 |
| XJO | S&P/ASX 200 | 4130.5 | 33.6 | 0.82% | 611.5m |
| XKO | S&P/ASX 300 | 4135.8 | 33.2 | 0.81% | 0 |
| XMD | S&P/ASX Mid-Cap 50 | 3985.8 | 6.5 | 0.16% | 0 |
| XSO | S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries | 2354.6 | 6.9 | 0.29% | 207.72m |
All Ordinaries Market Internals
| XAO | XJO | XSO | ASX20 | Market | |
| Advances | 197 | 113 | 87 | 19 | 669 |
| Declines | 187 | 68 | 78 | 1 | 976 |
| Advancing Volume | 492.84m | 428.68m | 131.44m | 169.23 | 475.02 |
| Declining Volume | 170.48m | 134.22m | 54.45m | 15.33 | 601.33 |
S&P/ASX200 GICS Sector Indices
The top sector for the day was Information Technology which gained 2.02% to 373.40 points. The only stocks in the sector that rose were
- Computershare. (CPU), +$0.20 (3.72%) to $5.57 on volume of 1.95m shares;
- Vision Systems. (VSL), +$0.04 (3.54%) to $1.17 on volume of 416,000 shares; and
- ERG (ERG), up a cent (3.33%) to $0.31 on volume of 2.38m shares.
Second in the sector leadership stakes was Telecommunications which gained 1.21% to 1874.90 points. The sector was "both up" (since it only contains 2 stocks) -
- Telecom Corporation Of New Zealand (TEL), +$0.09 (1.57%) to $5.83 on volume of 2.53m shares;
- Telstra Corporation. (TLS), +$0.06 (1.15%) to $5.28 on volume of 36.93m shares.
The bronze today went to ASX200 Financials ex Property Trusts which gained 1.17% to 4939.80 points. The sector was led by
- SFE Corporation (SFE), +$0.31 (3.37%) to $9.52 on volume of 1.3m shares;
- Insurance Australia Group (IAG), +$0.18 (2.92%) to $6.35 on volume of 4.64m shares;
- QBE Insurance Group (QBE), +$0.42 (2.89%) to $14.97 on volume of 3.29m shares;
- FKP Property Group (FKP), +$0.09 (2.3%) to $4.00 on volume of 902,000 shares; and
- Promina Group (PMN), +$0.11 (2.24%) to $5.01 on volume of 8.93m shares.
The worst-performed sector today was Utilities which lost 0.71% to 4579.60 points. The sector was dragged lower by
- Alinta (ALN), -$0.17 (2.04%) to $8.15 on volume of 2.41m shares;
- Australian Gas Light Company (AGL), -$0.14 (1%) to $13.81 on volume of 1.79m shares;
- Pacific Hydro (PHY), -$0.04 (0.91%) to $4.36 on volume of 163,000 shares;
- Energy Developments (ENE), -$0.02 (0.54%) to $3.68 on volume of 152,000 shares; and
- Gasnet Australia Group (GAS), -$0.01 (0.4%) to $2.50 on volume of 111,000 shares.
| Code | GICS Sector | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| XIJ | Information Technology | 373.4 | 7.4 | 2.02% | 6.46m |
| XTJ | Telecommunications | 1874.9 | 22.5 | 1.21% | 39.46m |
| XXJ | ASX200 Financials ex Property Trusts | 4939.8 | 56.9 | 1.17% | 86.08m |
| XMJ | Materials | 7294.6 | 81.6 | 1.13% | 167.52m |
| XFJ | Financials | 4869.4 | 43.9 | 0.91% | 176.9m |
| XSJ | Consumer Staples | 5398 | 43.2 | 0.81% | 42.02m |
| XDJ | Consumer Discretionary | 2258.4 | 12.7 | 0.57% | 50.08m |
| XEJ | Energy | 7536.7 | 42.3 | 0.56% | 42.91m |
| XNJ | Industrials | 4998.4 | 11.6 | 0.23% | 72.78m |
| XHJ | Healthcare | 4756.7 | 2.3 | 0.05% | 18.59m |
| XPJ | Property Trusts | 1763.5 | 0 | 0% | 95.27m |
| XUJ | Utilities | 4579.6 | -32.9 | -0.71% | 6.23m |
All Ordinaries Volume Leaders
| Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| TLS | Telstra Corporation. | 5.28 | 0.06 | 1.15% | 36.93m |
| BHP | BHP Billiton | 18.6 | 0.28 | 1.53% | 33.9m |
| SAI | Sai Global | 2.3 | 0.1 | 4.55% | 30.28m |
| ADY | Admiralty Resources. | 0.13 | 0.01 | 8.33% | 22.38m |
| LHG | Lihir Gold | 1.13 | 0.01 | 0.89% | 20.91m |
| DRT | DB Rreef Trust | 1.25 | 0 | 0% | 16.26m |
All Ordinaries Top Gainers
| Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| AWP | Arrow Pharmaceuticals | 12.5 | 1.18 | 10.42% | 81492 |
| PLF | Primelife Corporation | 1.18 | 0.11 | 10.28% | 240113 |
| VTI | Virotec International | 0.7 | 0.06 | 9.38% | 744204 |
| TKR | Triako Resources | 1.7 | 0.14 | 8.97% | 222745 |
| BDG | Bendigo Mining | 1.03 | 0.08 | 8.42% | 1.69m |
All Ordinaries Top Losers
| Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| GAP | Gale Pacific | 2.15 | -0.35 | -14% | 305685 |
| ALU | Altium | 0.33 | -0.05 | -13.16% | 324119 |
| BOC | Bougainville Copper | 0.49 | -0.06 | -10.19% | 192696 |
| CDA | Codan | 1.76 | -0.16 | -8.33% | 382091 |
| AVJ | AV Jennings Homes | 1.36 | -0.12 | -8.11% | 424320 |
Elsewhere in the Region...
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 137.35 points (1.19%) to close at 11668.5 points.
The Kiwi Market advanced 15.59 points (0.50%). A total of 22 stocks within the NZSE50 rose, with volume in advancers totalling 18.1million units. Decliners numbered 17, and total volume traded in losers was 4.3million shares. Individual stocks that dud well included...
- Promina Group (PMN), +$0.20 (3.77%) to $5.50 on volume of 547,000 shares;
- Waste Management (WAM), +$0.20 (3.08%) to $6.70 on volume of 501,000 shares;
- Port Of Tauranga (POT), +$0.15 (2.7%) to $5.70 on volume of 59,000 shares;
- Tenon Limited (TEN), +$0.10 (2.2%) to $4.65 on volume of 84,000 shares;
- Fisher & Paykel H (FPH), +$0.06 (2.01%) to $3.05 on volume of 1.17m shares; and
- Auckland International Airport (AIA), +$0.15 (1.79%) to $8.52 on volume of 473,000 shares.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index advanced 104.89 points (0.75%). Within the Hang Seng, 29 index components rose, while 2 stocks fell. Volume in the gainers in Hong Kong's big-cap index totalled 179.3million units, and total volume traded in losers was 42.3million shares. Individual stocks that contributed to the advance included...
- Yue Yuen Ind (0551), +$0.75 (3.56%) to $21.80 on volume of 2.11m shares;
- Lenovo Group (0992), +$0.08 (3.41%) to $2.28 on volume of 13.25m shares;
- Henderson Investments (0097), +$0.35 (3.07%) to $11.75 on volume of 1.3m shares;
- China Unicom (0762), +$0.20 (2.94%) to $7.00 on volume of 11.43m shares;
- CNOOC (0883), +$0.10 (2.31%) to $4.43 on volume of 40.66m shares; and
- Cosco Pacific (1199), +$0.35 (2.11%) to $16.95 on volume of 3.02m shares.
| Country | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| New Zealand | NZSE50 | 3160.983 | 15.59 | 0.5% | 23.81m |
| Japan | Nikkei 225 | 11668.5 | 137.35 | 1.19% | 59046 |
| Korea | KOSPI | 994.97 | 7.87 | 0.8% | 485709 |
| Singapore | Straits Times | 2146.13 | -6.46 | -0.3% | 0 |
| Hong Kong | Hang Seng | 14165.8 | 104.89 | 0.75% | 235.57m |
| Malaysia | KLSE Comp | 905.32 | 1.68 | 0.19% | 0 |
