OzRant: Au Revoir 2007...

Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.

I am pretty sure I've found yet another shortcoming in the French language... what is the formal address to someone or something that you're never going to see again?

We can all be reasonably certain that we are not going to see 2007 again, so 'Au Revoir' (until again-seeing) is not right. The Frogs have their parting pleasantries centred on seeing the party of the second part at some future date... au revoir of course, but also à bientôt (until soon), à demain (until tomorrow), à tout à l'heure (until real soon), à tout de suite (see you in a few seconds). What you really want is something like, oh, I don't know... GOODBYE, 2007. But you would need English for that...

No wonder we win at everything, us Anglophones. Our language is far more efficient, because it is organic and anarchic - we take words where we find them, and we don't have some government-appointed set of cognoscenti who dictate grammar and vocabulary from on high (the French do - half the reason that their vocabulary is a third of English, and their grammar and syntax is still Latinate, unnecessarily complex and wasteful)

Now where was I? Oh yes... the Australian markets...

The final session - shortened as it was, so that the silvertails could get home without having to worry about the traffic - finished with less than a whimper. At the index and sector-index level, there was so little change across the board that you could use Friday's OzRant as a reference to the actual year-on-year changs for 2006-07 without too much fear of contradiction. That said, tomorrow I plan to post a reasonably complete dissection of the Year That Was. 

Major Market Indices

The broad market - the All Ordinaries (XAO) - declined gently, dropping 2.7 points (0.04%), finishing at 6421 points. The index hit an intraday high of 6431.4 just before 1:15 p.m., while the low for the day was 6396.9 - set at 11:55 am.

Total volume traded on the ASX was 691.2 million units, well below its 10-day average - as might be expected for a half-day. The ASX's daily listing of all stocks included 1224 different 3-letter FPO's which traded (i.e., had non-zero trade volume). Of these, 553 issues rose, with volume in rising issues totalling 411 million units. 367 stocks fell for the session, with aggregate volume traded of 195 million shares.

Of the 487 All Ordinaries components, 215 rose while 152 fell. Aggregate volume within the All Ords was evenly split - 126.38 million shares traded in gainers while 125.97 million shares traded in the day's losers.

The Index that forms the cash basis for the SFE's Share Price Index Futures - the S&P/ASX 200 (XJO) - was so close to unchanged that I refuse to mention it. OK, I'll mention it. It fell 0.1 points. Consider it mentioned.

The "heavy hitters" of the Australian market - the ASX 20 Leaders (XTL) - slid modestly, falling 2.6 points (0.07%), closing out the session at 3492.3 points.

Among the 20 big guns, 8 index components finished to the upside, and of the rest, 7 closed lower for the session. The 21 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 29.62 million units; 8 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 10.59 million shares, while the 7 decliners had volume traded totalling 9.15 million units. The major percentage gainers within the index were

• Stockland Trust Stapled (SGP), +$0.19 (2.30%) to $8.42 on volume of 3.1 million shares;
• QBE Insurance Group Limited (QBE), +$0.34 (1.03%) to $33.34 on volume of 821.5 thousand shares;
• Westfield Group (WDC), +$0.15 (0.72%) to $21.00 on volume of 2 million shares;
• Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (CBA), +$0.22 (0.37%) to $59.10 on volume of 964.6 thousand shares;
• Suncorp-Metway Limited. (SUN), +$0.06 (0.36%) to $16.92 on volume of 1.2 million shares; and
• Telstra (Installment Receipts) (TLSCA), +$0.01 (0.32%) to $3.17 on volume of 2.6 million shares.

On the less salubrious side of the big-cap fence, the following stocks were the worst-performed within the index:

• St George Bank Limited (SGB), -$0.57 (1.77%) to $31.59 on volume of 1.4 million shares;
• BHP Billiton Limited (BHP), -$0.37 (0.91%) to $40.14 on volume of 3.4 million shares;
• Wesfarmers Limited (WES), -$0.25 (0.61%) to $40.50 on volume of 831.7 thousand shares;
• Brambles Limited (BXB), -$0.04 (0.35%) to $11.53 on volume of 1.1 million shares; and
• Australia And New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), -$0.06 (0.22%) to $27.46 on volume of 1.3 million shares.

At the other end of the market-cap spectrum lie the denizens of the ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO) - the place where non-mania excess returns lie. The small-fry swam in the opposite direction to the big fish today - the big end of town went basically nowhere (but slightly negatively) while the minnows posted a gainwell . The Small Ords advanced by under a percent, adding 4.8 points (0.12%), closing out the session at 3845.4 points.

Among the stocks that make up the Small Caps index, 85 index components finished to the upside, and of the rest, 79 closed lower for the session.

The 197 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 86.9 million units: volume in the 85 gainers totalling 35.99 million shares, with trade totalling 38.18 million units in the index's 79 declining components. The major percentage gainers within the index were

• McGuigan Simeon Wines Limited (MGW), +$0.22 (10.84%) to $2.25 on volume of 332.7 thousand shares;
• St Barbara Limited (SBM), +$0.06 (7.59%) to $0.78 on volume of 2.5 million shares;
• Challenger Diversified Property Group (CDI), +$0.07 (6.95%) to $1.00 on volume of 751.6 thousand shares;
• OceanaGold Corporation (OGC), +$0.18 (6.92%) to $2.78 on volume of 238.2 thousand shares; and
• Mirvac Industrial Trust (MIX), +$0.04 (6.06%) to $0.70 on volume of 353 thousand shares.

In the red-zone of the little-stock index, the following list represents the biggest downers (in terms of percentage decline):

• Centro Retail (CER), -$0.07 (6.4%) to $0.95 on volume of 6 million shares;
• UXC Limited (UXC), -$0.11 (5.74%) to $1.81 on volume of 304.6 thousand shares;
• Silex Systems Limited (SLX), -$0.29 (4.6%) to $6.01 on volume of 75.2 thousand shares;
• Australand Property Group (ALZ), -$0.1 (4.13%) to $2.32 on volume of 434.9 thousand shares; and
• PMP Limited (PMP), -$0.06 (3.22%) to $1.81 on volume of 74.4 thousand shares.

Index Changes

Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
XAO	All Ordinaries	6421	-2.7	-0.04	298.9m
XTL	ASX 20	3492.3	-2.6	-0.07	29.6m
XFL	ASX 50	6138.8	1.3	0.02	96.2m
XTO	ASX 100	5125.1	-0.1	0	175.9m
XJO	ASX 200	6339.8	-0.1	0	238.8m
XKO	ASX 300	6356.7	0.7	0.01	262.9m
XMD	ASX Mid-Cap 50	6594.6	-8.9	-0.13	79.7m
XSO	ASX Small Ordinaries	3845.4	4.8	0.12	87m

Market Breadth

	ASX20	XTO	XJO	XAO	XSO	Market
Advances	8	51	93	215	85	553
Declines	7	33	77	151	79	367
Advancing Volume	10.6m	76.7m	98.1m	126.4m	36m	411 million
Declining Volume	9.1m	69.4m	101.6m	125.4m	38.2m	195 million

GICS Industry Indices

Among the 11 industry indices, 9 registered an advance for the session, the remaining 2 lost ground.

The best performing index was Information Technology (XIJ), which added 9.8 points (1.73%) to 576.5 points. The 2 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 0.41 million units. The index components finished as follows...

• Computershare Limited (CPU), +$0.18 (1.86%) to $9.88 on volume of 303 thousand shares; and
• Iress Market Technology Limited (IRE), +$0.08 (1.01%) to $8.00 on volume of 104.2 thousand shares.

Second in the index leadership stakes was Utilities (XUJ), which gained 68.1 points (1.03%) to 6653.8 points. The 12 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 11.9 million units; 10 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 9.47 million shares, while sole declining stock traded 0 million units. The major percentage gainers within the index were

• Babcock & Brown Power (BBP), +$0.12 (4.62%) to $2.72 on volume of 4.4 million shares;
• Duet Group (DUE), +$0.06 (2.08%) to $2.95 on volume of 832.4 thousand shares;
• Sp Ausnet (SPN), +$0.02 (1.26%) to $1.21 on volume of 534.9 thousand shares;
• Energy Developments Limited (ENE), +$0.04 (1.04%) to $3.89 on volume of 227.2 thousand shares; and
• AGL Energy Limited (AGK), +$0.13 (0.99%) to $13.32 on volume of 250.5 thousand shares.

The bronze medal for today goes to Property Trusts (XPJ), which climbed 12.8 points (0.61%) to 2111.2 points. The 20 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 77.27 million units; 11 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 36.94 million shares, while the 8 decliners had volume traded totalling 36.88 million units. The major percentage gainers within the index were

• Bunnings Warehouse Property Trust (BWP), +$0.11 (4.93%) to $2.34 on volume of 200.7 thousand shares;
• Macquarie Countrywide Trust (MCW), +$0.05 (3.13%) to $1.65 on volume of 12.5 million shares;
• DB RREEF Trust (DRT), +$0.05 (2.56%) to $2.00 on volume of 4.1 million shares;
• Apn/Uka European Retail Property Group (AEZ), +$0.03 (2.56%) to $1.00 on volume of 1.2 million shares; and
• Valad Property Group (VPG), +$0.03 (2.38%) to $1.29 on volume of 2 million shares.

The worst-performed index for the session was Materials (XMJ), which dipped 86.7 points (0.57%) to 15016.5 points. The 42 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 47.69 million units; The 17 decliners had volume traded totalling 22.58 million units, and 21 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 20.94 million shares, The major percentage decliners within the index were

• Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (FMG), -$0.97 (11.45%) to $7.50 on volume of 7.9 million shares;
• James Hardie Industries N.V. (JHX), -$0.22 (3.3%) to $6.45 on volume of 809.3 thousand shares;
• Western Areas NL (WSA), -$0.17 (3.02%) to $5.45 on volume of 392.5 thousand shares;
• Minara Resources Limited (MRE), -$0.17 (2.66%) to $6.23 on volume of 268.8 thousand shares; and
• Mount Gibson Iron (MGX), -$0.07 (2.43%) to $2.81 on volume of 756.3 thousand shares.

Just missing out on the wooden spoon was Consumer Staples (XSJ), which slid 13.9 points (0.16%) to 8905.4 points. The 9 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 7.19 million units; The 3 decliners had volume traded totalling 3.93 million units, and 4 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 1.76 million shares, The major percentage decliners within the index were

• Coca-Cola Amatil Limited (CCL), -$0.15 (1.56%) to $9.48 on volume of 2.2 million shares;
• Goodman Fielder Limited (GFF), -$0.02 (1.04%) to $1.90 on volume of 957.2 thousand shares; and
• Metcash Limited (MTS), -$0.03 (0.68%) to $4.35 on volume of 805.2 thousand shares.

Sector Indices

Code	GICS Sector	Close	+/-	%	Volume
XIJ	Information Technology	576.5	9.8	1.73	0m
XUJ	Utilities	6653.8	68.1	1.03	12m
XPJ	Property Trusts	2111.2	12.8	0.61	77m
XHJ	Healthcare	9625.4	40	0.42	4m
XEJ	Energy	15591.7	46.1	0.3	7m
XNJ	Industrials	6538.9	18.3	0.28	25m
XDJ	Consumer Discretionary	2713.2	4.3	0.16	28m
XTJ	Telecommunications	1676.2	0.9	0.05	10m
XXJ	ASX200 Financials ex Property Trusts	7156.6	3.1	0.04	20m
XSJ	Consumer Staples	8905.4	-13.9	-0.16	7m
XMJ	Materials	15016.5	-86.7	-0.57	48m

All Ordinaries Major Movers

All Ords Volume Leaders

Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
CNP	Centro Properties Group	1.01	-0.03	-2.42	17.2m
MCW	Macquarie Countrywide Trust	1.65	0.05	3.13	12.5m
PBL	Publishing & Broadcasting Limited	20.80	0.00	0	8.7m
SGN	Stw Communications Group Limited	2.35	-0.03	-1.26	8.2m
FMG	Fortescue Metals Group Ltd	7.50	-0.97	-11.45	7.9m

All Ords Percentage Gainers

Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
HZN	HORIZON OIL NL	0.42	0.05	12	1.3m
MGW	McGuigan Simeon Wines Limited	2.25	0.22	10.84	332.7k
SEN	SENETAS CORPORATION	0.08	0.01	7.89	389.2k
AFG	Allco Finance Group Limited	6.20	0.44	7.64	1.7m
SBM	St Barbara Limited	0.78	0.06	7.59	2.5m

All Ords Percentage Losers

Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
FMG	Fortescue Metals Group Ltd	7.50	-0.97	-11.45	7.9m
AIM	Aim Resources Limited	0.12	-0.01	-8	7.4m
CCV	Cash Converters International	0.40	-0.03	-6.98	582.1k
CER	Centro Retail	0.95	-0.07	-6.4	6m
UXC	UXC Limited	1.81	-0.11	-5.74	304.6k

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NonRant: Ooopsie...

Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.

Just when you think that I've evolved enough to be let out unsupervised, I provide a gobbet of evidence to the contrary.

This time, I generated a problem while fiddling around with the template for the Blog, not realising that the people who access my babblings through RSS readers, will have gotten a blast of repeated blather every time I saved the template anew.

Sorry for that. I didn't realise it would be the case; I only just found out that when Blogger gave me back my treasured MarketRant name, it didn't keep things like metadata (keywords and so forth that help spread the Rant message... turning it into the blog equivalent of a SARS variant that somehow endows the sufferer with massive intelligence).

SARS? I hear you murmur (keep it down - you murmur waaay too loud.)

Yes, SARS. Not the shortened form of Sarsaparilla (or sarsparilla if you prefer - never did get a handle on how it was spelt or spelled or however you spell the past tense of spell). I mean the last supposed pandemic that was going to wipe us all out unless we gave the government greater power and stopped talking to foreigners or travelling. Y'know - the one before 'grippe aviare' (bird flu). The one that killed on an unprecedented sale (by 'unprecedented' I mean '120 people globally... one thousandth of the number killed by normal flu every year without fail, and one ten-thousandth of the toll from the last genuine epidemic form of influenza').

Anyway... all that remains is for YOU, dear and beloved reader, to inform those you know who used to read the musings of your beloved GT, that he is back. I don't want to spray e-mails hither and yon saying "I got my blog back" - except to people like the Red Giant and BlackEyes.

Note also I have made it easy again to subscribe to the RSS feed for the site (the little orange doohickey at  top right) and there are ads all over the place as well. I can't seem to get rid of the ad between the first post and the second - I have tried. I don't think clicking on it helps.

NonRant: Musings on Detention Centrism...

Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.

My recent stay in a French detention centre - thanks to teensy little Emperor Nikita 'Mossad' Sarkoleon - got me to thinking just how lucky Australia is, in terms of its relationship with its former colonial masters.

Most of the other 'retenu' were from former French colonies - in North Africa mostly, because the Frogs have never been able to colonise anybody who wielded anything sharper than a supercilious glance.

Most of those former French colonies are relatively rich in natural resources - oil, gas, gold, diamonds... and of course, slaves.

To my way of thinking though, it's not the enslavement of bits of the population that ought to be remembered - it is the selling-off of the exploitation rights to those natural resources... to politically-connected individuals and companies, at prices which would make a well-connected Russian oligarch green with envy.

Let me develop this a bit further, and you will see part of the reason why The Lucky Country is one of the richest countries (per capita) in the world. 

Australia got its independence from Britain in 1901, when Fatty Downer's overweight ancestors helped sever the ties that binded Oz to Pom. (Subsequently we sent hundreds of thousands of young Strayans to be slaughtered on some foreign field, but that's another stupid story). Our independence came after our gold rush (which, like that in the US, resulted in a large number of small fortunes due to the relative anarchy that prevailed on the goldfields), but before large-scale understanding of the requirement for hydrocarbons or natural gas (which Straya had in abundance, although it wasn't known at the time). And uranium - why, that hadn't even been invented yet.

The result: much of our resource endowment was sitting in the ground the day Fatty's grand-dad wept as he tugged the ancestral forelock for the last time. None of it got given away to the East India Company, BP, or whatever other corporate tapeworms were attached to British parliamentarians at the time.

Contrast that with Gabon, Niger, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Chad, and other former colonies who did not start getting their independence until the second half of the 20th century (you would have been able to include the massive Tiger oil field in Viet Nam, until the Vietnamese took it upon themselves to 'renegotiate' in the 1960s and 70s).

Their natural resources - or more accurately the rights to the profit stream that accrued to them - were pretty much given away to politically connected French companies (Total, and so on). That ensured that while the wages of labour (low, at the time, and low subsequently) remained 'in country', the profits of stock went out of the country.

In other words, the Frogs raped half of North Africa... and yet here in the 21st century they (the Frogs) are an economic basket case. This is evidence of two things - firstly, my long-held belief that resource acquisition through conquest is terribly expensive and not necessarily of genuine economic benefit to the country that does the acquiring. From the point of view of the crony-capitalist, that's not important -& the expense is always borne by the taxpayer, and the crony still gets to build himself a palace. Secondly, it's evidence that unless you do something sensible with a stolen endowment, you're still likely to end up an also-ran.

But this brings me to another point. You all know that I advocate completely free flows of individuals across national borders; i.e., that labour ought to be permitted to flow in the same manner as we permit capital. Relative wage and factor mix arguments put forward by the nationalist (racist) element are entirely specious - and I know, because I am as racist as any bloke out there and would grasp at any valid argument against letting races mix willy nilly (sarcasm alert).

I fully acknowledge that there is some question as to the static economic benefits of immigration (unless the migrant brings with him capital equal to his share of the non-debt component of the funding of existing public infrastructure).

That said, if I was a government I would prefer to have people who were in my country as a result of revealed preference, over those who happened to be expulsed from a vagina which was within my borders at the time. Immigrants historically have been providers of large tranches of (initially, low skilled) labour, but furthermore they have usually been at least as aspirational as their indigenous counterparts. There is a genuine sense that they have an opportunity to build a new life... even if that new life is in Taylors Lakes, or Broadmeadows, or Cabramatta, or other places that I would not live if you threatened to kill me.

Furthermore, even if you accept that there is some small net cost to an economy as a result of permitting immigration (I have yet to see any compelling evidence though), the argument which proceeds from Natural Rights is simply insurmountable. There is absolutely no case for one class of persons (corporations, which are legal persons) having unrestricted cross-border access while another (physical persons) are treated like livestock and can only travel under the brand of the country in which they were expulsed from a vagina, or some other country which accepted them post-expulsion.

But I digress.... my point was going to be that, if you colonise a country and lay claim to its resource endowment, you ought also be forced to lay claim to its human resource endowment... that is, you ought to be forced to accept as your citizens, the denizens of the country you occupy (if they ask for it). Boy, would THAT prevent some wars!!

AdminRant: USRant Note...

Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.

The more astute amongst the rant family will have noticed that for some time I have been rather remiss as regards the U.S. Post-Market Report - a.k.a. USRant. This is because I have developed an almost pathological aversion to all things Microsoft, and as such have removed Excel from my hard drive. To this end, all of the wizardry that creates the 'generated' bits of USRant - which I had written as Excel macros - was rendered defunct. (We faced - and overcame - the same problem wth the OzRant).

I have promised myself that I would do the 'port' of the USRant Excel logic across to PHP, the better to automate (via 'cron') the process by which the automatic stuff is generated. In other words, I want to do the same migration as I have already done with OzRant, which now works perfectly.;

That said, I also;I want to add some 'fuzziness' to the sentence structures so that the generated bits of both Rants don't always read exactly the same. It's two days work (assuming that my fat-fingered typing style generates large numbers of syntax errors which defy debugging... if I get it right first time it will take me three hours). Anyway, it will hold up the porting across of USRant for a little while yet.

You might wonder why this matters, so I will explain in a little more detail (because I just know you're interested...)...

Consider the following bit of the OzRant (I've coloured in 'calculated' variables so that you can see how it works currently):

At the other end of the market-cap spectrum lie the denizens of the ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO) - the place where non-mania excess returns lie. The small end of the market had a significantly worse day than its large-cap counterpart. The Small Ords slid modestly, falling 15.9 points (0.41%), closing out the session at 3840.6 points.

The green bits of text are just numbers - no fuzziness there. They are just data or manipulations of data.

The other coloured bits rely on levels or ratios of outcomes. They vary depending on the magnitude of the non-fuzzy stuff.

So if the Small Ords performance for the session only just exceeds, or just falls short of, the ASX20, then the  bit of blue text will say something like 'performed pretty much in line with'. If the Small Ords performs significantly worse (better) than the ASX20, the language becomes what you see in the blockquote. And if the out (under) performance is striking, there's different language again.

Likewise the second coloured bit: a fall of under 0.2% will make the purple text say 'retreated mildly', 0.2%-0.5% is 'slid modestly', 0.5%-1.5% is 'fell rather sharply', and anything above 1.5% is 'was hammered to the tune of'... or something like that. 'Falling' can become 'dipping', 'sliding', 'losing', 'plummetting' and so forth. 

You get the picture.

But here's what I would prefer: before any of the underlying calculations are performed, I want the actual sentence structure to be determined by the selection of several random numbers: these would determine the order of sentence phrases. 

The other thing I would change is this: at present there is also only one outcome for each 'band' - a single adjective for a given percentage range, for example (e.g., the orange text choices). I would prefer to have a set of, say, three for each 'band' of outcomes... one of which would be chosen at random once you know which band you're in.

The reason for this, is that I would like the RantScreed to change every time the auto-generated bits were generated. At present, if I push the button marked 'Create RantScreed', it will create an IDENTICAL RantScreed for a given set of data. That is, if the data is for December 28th 2007, every piece of the generated stuff will be the same no matter how often you push the button.

But imagine if it was set up so that every time you hit the button, there were subtle changes in phrasing, word order, adjective selection and so on. 

That would, in my view, be neat.

So if I can get it to work properly, you could wind up with this

A much harder time of it was had by the little stocks that make up the ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO). Although historically this has been a good place to find underpriced value, today saw significant underperformance compared to the big end of the market-cap spectrum. The drop was hardly earth-shattering - under half a percent - with Small Ords registering a closing print of 3840.6 points, representing a decline of 15.9 points (0.41%) for the day.

or this -

The ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO) index slid 15.9 points (0.41%) to 3840.6 points. That's not 'off a cliff' bad, but it is still significantly worse than both the ASX20 and ASX100: today the big end of town got the nod from the voters.

I've highlighted in red the pieces of text that would vary (selected at random from the list) once the structure had been determined (by selecting at random from some small number of alternatives. Note that in the two examples, the sentence structure itself has changed relative to the first (blue-highlighted) original. I think I will have four alternatives for each identifiable paragraph in the Rants. 

Overall, the exact same data would provide an almost infinte number of reports with the same broad structure, but which would read very differently - the difference would be caused by a stochastic vector variable, with elements which would determine overall structure, as well as selecting from a range of alternatives for each key adjective or phrase. And as I thought up new ways to express the same sort of thing, the range of alternatives would increase.

OK, so maybe youre not interested. But I think it's going to be pretty neat.  

OzRant: Thumbs a-Twiddle...

Note - from June 24th 2009, this blog has migrated from Blogger to a self-hosted version. Click here to go straight there.

The second-last trading day of the year has now come and gone. Those who refuse to look around them and survey the toxic investment environment are no doubt blissfully unaware of the extent to which massive government intervention has saved global financial markets - for now.

I find it amusing that the denizens of Wall St (and Collins St, and whatever street in Sydney the ASX building is on) get all uppity about government spending and welfare and so on... unless it's them who's getting the money from the gummint. The recent (and truly massive) opening of the liquidity spigot is, as I have said before, like giving a patient crack so that they don't exhibit signs of overdose from the heroin you gave them earlier - which was given to help them get over the effects of the speed you sold them yesterday, which in turn... all th way back to aspirin.

That's the thing, you see - once a government thinks it has wheedled its way out of one crisis, it pays absolutely no regard to the consequences until the next crisis emerges (which is usually the result of the 'fix' for the last crisis, since governments never want their chums to suffer the consequences of bad decisions).

No matter - with one session to go it's clear that the Aussie market had a pretty decent year, all things considered: the All Ords has risen by 13.8% thus far for 2007. The big caps have been the standouts, thanks largely to huge runups in BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and other resource majors - to date the ASX20 is up 17.4% for the year. Small Caps significantly underperformed - the Small Ords has risen just over 11.6%.

As far as the sectors are concerned it should not be a surprise that the standouts were Materials (+42% thanks to rampant speculation over Rio and others) and Energy (+27.8%) while relatively safe sectors (Financials, Property Trusts, Utilities) did poorly. Interesting to see the implicit positioning for a slowdown in Consumption spending...  Consumer Staples did well for 2007 (+20.4%) while Consumer Discretionary did poorly (-2.2%). 

At this stage all index and sector returns mentioned here, exclude dividends. 

OK... enough blather. Today's action:   

Major Market Indices

The broad market - the All Ordinaries (XAO) - rallied through to entire session after a very poor open. At the death, it had registered a fall of just 2.7 points (0.04%), finishing at 6423.7 points. The low for the day was 6379.7 (6375-ish) - down about 50 - set at 10:07 am (i.e., just after the open). The intraday high of 6423.7 (6425-ish) was at the close,

Total volume traded on the ASX was 849.4 million units, well below its 10-day average. The ASX's daily listing of all stocks included 1289 different 3-letter FPO's which traded (i.e., had non-zero trade volume). Of these, 478 issues rose, with volume in rising issues totalling 414.9 million units. Conversely (or even contrariwise), 498 stocks were dragged below the gain line, with aggregate volume traded of 315.5 million shares.

Of the 487 All Ordinaries components, 158 rose while 231 fell. Volume was tilted in favour of the losers by a margin of 2.3:1, with 82.14 million shares traded in gainers while 186.54 million shares traded in the day's losers.

The Index that forms the cash basis for the SFE's Share Price Index Futures - the S&P/ASX 200 (XJO) - fell mildly, losing 11 points (0.17%), closing out the session at 6339.9 points.

The "heavy hitters" of the Australian market - the ASX 20 Leaders (XTL) - slid modestly, falling 10.8 points (0.31%), closing out the session at 3494.9 points.

Among the 20 big guns, 6 index components finished to the upside, and of the rest, 12 closed lower for the session. The 21 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 52.73 million units; 6 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 5.95 million shares, while the 12 decliners had volume traded totalling 25.1 million units. The major percentage gainers within the index were

• Wesfarmers Limited (WES), +$0.47 (1.17%) to $40.76 on volume of 455.3 thousand shares;
• Qbe Insurance Group Limited (QBE), +$0.32 (0.98%) to $32.91 on volume of 734.5 thousand shares;
• Woodside Petroleum Limited (WPL), +$0.41 (0.82%) to $50.35 on volume of 973 thousand shares;
• Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (CBA), +$0.18 (0.31%) to $58.70 on volume of 850.6 thousand shares; and
• Australia And New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), +$0.08 (0.29%) to $27.48 on volume of 1.6 million shares.

On the less salubrious side of the big-cap fence, the following stocks were the worst-performed within the index:

• BHP Billiton Limited (BHP), -$0.6 (1.46%) to $40.50 on volume of 4.1 million shares;
• Brambles Limited (BXB), -$0.16 (1.36%) to $11.58 on volume of 1.1 million shares;
• Westfield Group (WDC), -$0.22 (1.04%) to $20.91 on volume of 2 million shares;
• St George Bank Limited (SGB), -$0.33 (1.01%) to $32.24 on volume of 856.1 thousand shares; and
• Rio Tinto Limited (RIO), -$1.33 (0.98%) to $134.08 on volume of 400.5 thousand shares.

At the other end of the market-cap spectrum lie the denizens of the ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO) - the place where non-mania excess returns lie. The small end of the market had significantly worse day than its large-cap counterpart. The Small Ords slid modestly, falling 15.9 points (0.41%), closing out the session at 3840.6 points.

Among the stocks that make up the Small Caps index, 60 index components finished to the upside, and of the rest, 116 closed lower for the session.

The 197 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 123.85 million units: volume in the 60 gainers totalling 28.69 million shares, with trade totalling 55.17 million units in the index's 116 declining components. The major percentage gainers within the index were

• Silex Systems Limited (SLX), +$0.42 (7.32%) to $6.16 on volume of 328.1 thousand shares;
• Sylvania Resources Limited (SLV), +$0.15 (5.77%) to $2.75 on volume of 33.9 thousand shares;
• Commander Communications Limited (CDR), +$0.02 (5.66%) to $0.28 on volume of 512 thousand shares;
• Resolute Mining Limited (RSG), +$0.08 (4.57%) to $1.72 on volume of 203.7 thousand shares; and
• Albidon Limited (ALB), +$0.14 (4.52%) to $3.24 on volume of 237.9 thousand shares.

In the red-zone of the little-stock index, the following list represents the biggest downers (in terms of percentage decline):

• Babcock&Brown Japan Property Trust (BJT), -$0.08 (5.39%) to $1.41 on volume of 994.4 thousand shares;
• Macquarie Leisure Trust Group (MLE), -$0.19 (5.08%) to $3.55 on volume of 115.8 thousand shares;
• Aditya Birla Minerals limited (ABY), -$0.12 (4.96%) to $2.30 on volume of 370.7 thousand shares;
• Charter Hall Group (CHC), -$0.13 (4.94%) to $2.50 on volume of 437.4 thousand shares; and
• Centro Retail (CER), -$0.05 (4.88%) to $0.98 on volume of 8.9 million shares.

Index Changes

Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
XAO	All Ordinaries	6423.7	-2.7	-0.04	340.9m
XTL	ASX 20	3494.9	-10.8	-0.31	52.7m
XFL	ASX 50	6137.5	-17.9	-0.29	117.8m
XTO	ASX 100	5125.2	-7.3	-0.14	197.7m
XJO	ASX 200	6339.9	-11	-0.17	291.3m
XKO	ASX 300	6356	-11	-0.17	321.9m
XMD	ASX Mid-Cap 50	6603.5	43.9	0.67	79.9m
XSO	ASX Small Ordinaries	3840.6	-15.9	-0.41	124.2m

Market Breadth

	ASX20	XTO	XJO	XAO	XSO	Market
Advances	6	31	55	158	60	478
Declines	12	62	125	230	116	498
Advancing Volume	5.9m	47.6m	62.8m	82.1m	28.7m	414.9 million
Declining Volume	25.1m	123.2m	159.4m	185.7m	55.2m	315.5 million

GICS Industry Indices

Among the 11 industry indices, it was pretty much even stevens, with a very slight lead to the duds... the 5 that had an "up" day were just shaded by the remaining 6 which didn't.

The best performing index was Energy (XEJ), which added 187.8 points (1.22%) to 15545.6 points. The 17 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 14.52 million units; 9 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 10.76 million shares, while the 6 decliners had volume traded totalling 2.33 million units. The major percentage gainers within the index were

• Santos Limited (STO), +$0.30 (2.2%) to $13.95 on volume of 1.5 million shares;
• Paladin Resources Limited (PDN), +$0.14 (2.15%) to $6.65 on volume of 1.3 million shares;
• Nexus Energy Limited (NXS), +$0.04 (1.94%) to $1.84 on volume of 4.2 million shares;
• Origin Energy Limited (ORG), +$0.15 (1.75%) to $8.74 on volume of 948.2 thousand shares; and
• Worleyparsons Limited (WOR), +$0.68 (1.33%) to $51.93 on volume of 130.1 thousand shares.

Second in the index leadership stakes was Healthcare (XHJ), which gained 112.1 points (1.18%) to 9585.4 points. The 9 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 3.35 million units; 3 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 0.29 million shares, while the 5 decliners had volume traded totalling 3.06 million units. The major percentage gainers within the index were

• Cochlear Limited (COH), +$0.81 (1.12%) to $73.36 on volume of 44.5 thousand shares;
• Ansell Limited (ANN), +$0.08 (0.67%) to $11.96 on volume of 73.8 thousand shares; and
• Sonic Healthcare Limited (SHL), +$0.04 (0.24%) to $16.59 on volume of 167.8 thousand shares.

The bronze medal for today goes to Information Technology (XIJ), which climbed 1.3 points (0.23%) to 566.7 points. The 2 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 0.36 million units; 2 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 0.36 million shares, while sole declining stock traded 0 million units. The major percentage gainers within the index were

• Iress Market Technology Limited (IRE), +$0.13 (1.68%) to $7.88 on volume of 82.3 thousand shares; and
• Computershare Limited (CPU), +$0.02 (0.21%) to $9.73 on volume of 279.2 thousand shares.

The worst-performed index for the session was Property Trusts (XPJ), which dipped 29.8 points (1.4%) to 2098.4 points. The 20 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 65.43 million units; The 18 decliners had volume traded totalling 57.32 million units, and 2 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 8.11 million shares, The major percentage decliners within the index were

• Centro Properties Group (CNP), -$0.07 (6.36%) to $1.03 on volume of 14.7 million shares;
• Babcock&Brown Japan Property Trust (BJT), -$0.08 (5.39%) to $1.41 on volume of 994.4 thousand shares;
• Centro Retail (CER), -$0.05 (4.88%) to $0.98 on volume of 8.9 million shares;
• Apn/Uka European Retail Property Group (AEZ), -$0.05 (4.88%) to $0.98 on volume of 847.2 thousand shares; and
• ING Office Fund (IOF), -$0.08 (4.76%) to $1.60 on volume of 1.8 million shares.

Just missing out on the wooden spoon was Industrials (XNJ), which slid 73.4 points (1.11%) to 6520.6 points. The 32 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 33.35 million units; The 23 decliners had volume traded totalling 26.39 million units, and 7 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 4.01 million shares, The major percentage decliners within the index were

• Downer Edi Limited (DOW), -$0.22 (3.99%) to $5.29 on volume of 517.4 thousand shares;
• Macmahon Holdings Limited (MAH), -$0.05 (2.67%) to $1.64 on volume of 443.9 thousand shares;
• Bradken Limited (BKN), -$0.22 (2.66%) to $8.04 on volume of 347.3 thousand shares;
• Cabcharge Australia Limited (CAB), -$0.25 (2.29%) to $10.65 on volume of 126.3 thousand shares; and
• Alesco Corporation Limited (ALS), -$0.23 (2.21%) to $10.20 on volume of 73.7 thousand shares.

Third-to-last amongst the sector indices was Consumer Discretionary (XDJ), which slid 26 points (0.95%) to 2708.9 points. The 25 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 12.52 million units; The 17 decliners had volume traded totalling 10.19 million units, and 6 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 1.3 million shares, The major percentage decliners within the index were

• MFS Limited (MFS), -$0.11 (2.42%) to $4.44 on volume of 809.7 thousand shares;
• Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group (MCG), -$0.13 (2.4%) to $5.29 on volume of 1.3 million shares;
• APN News & Media Limited (APN), -$0.1 (1.83%) to $5.36 on volume of 310.9 thousand shares;
• Fairfax Media Limited (FXJ), -$0.07 (1.49%) to $4.62 on volume of 2.4 million shares; and
• Aristocrat Leisure Limited (ALL), -$0.16 (1.4%) to $11.24 on volume of 604 thousand shares.

Sector Indices

Code	GICS Sector	Close	+/-	%	Volume
XEJ	Energy	15545.6	187.8	1.22	15m
XHJ	Healthcare	9585.4	112.1	1.18	3m
XIJ	Information Technology	566.7	1.3	0.23	0m
XSJ	Consumer Staples	8919.3	13	0.15	27m
XXJ	ASX200 Financials ex Property Trusts	7153.5	10.9	0.15	25m
XUJ	Utilities	6585.7	-4.4	-0.07	9m
XMJ	Materials	15103.2	-41.4	-0.27	86m
XTJ	Telecommunications	1675.3	-7.6	-0.45	14m
XDJ	Consumer Discretionary	2708.9	-26	-0.95	13m
XNJ	Industrials	6520.6	-73.4	-1.11	33m
XPJ	Property Trusts	2098.4	-29.8	-1.4	65m

All Ordinaries Major Movers

All Ords Volume Leaders

Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
CSM	Consolidated Minerals Limited	5.01	0.00	0	28.3m
CGJ	Coles Group Limited	15.25	0.00	0	19.5m
CNP	Centro Properties Group	1.03	-0.07	-6.36	14.7m
FMG	Fortescue Metals Group Ltd	8.45	1.25	17.36	9.4m
CER	Centro Retail	0.98	-0.05	-4.88	8.9m

All Ords Percentage Gainers

Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
FMG	Fortescue Metals Group Ltd	8.45	1.25	17.36	9.4m
TCQ	Trinity Consolidated Group	2.30	0.30	15	19.3k
APD	APN Property Group Limited	2.30	0.25	12.2	1.7k
SLX	Silex Systems Limited	6.16	0.42	7.32	328.1k
AVE	Aevum Limited	2.95	0.19	6.88	55.6k

All Ords Percentage Losers

Code	Name	Close	+/-	%	Volume
CFU	Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited	0.54	-0.06	-9.24	301.7k
NRT	Novogen Limited	1.20	-0.12	-9.09	110.9k
APE	AP Eagers Limited	15.95	-1.35	-7.8	4.7k
AIM	Aim Resources Limited	0.13	-0.01	-7.41	646k
CNP	Centro Properties Group	1.03	-0.07	-6.36	14.7m

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