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The kabuki going on in the US at the moment is laughable - one set of crooks is pretending to be unenthusiastic about a plan proposed by a second set of crooks' to bail out a third set... (actually it's just one big set, but you know what I mean). We all know that it's just more fake political bullshit, and that eventually global taxpayers will be taking it up the vord in order to prevent the heads of the world's financial firms from having to sell one of their châteaux.
And Hank Paulson has been reduced to clownish Fat-Tony-speak: if the bailout is not handed over before the end of the week, there will be 'consequences'.
Maybe it's photoshopped, but its apt...
You know how it goes on the Sopranos: the guy being hit up for the dough is told that if he doesn't make the requisite protection payments, bad things could happen - the world bein' a dangerous place 'n'all.
More apt is Fat Tony from the Simpsons...
I'm afraid I must insist. You see, my wife, she has been most vocal on the subject of the [bailout] monies. "Where's the money? "When are you going to get the money?" "Why aren't you getting the money now?"
And as I showed last night in the post on short selling on the ASX, we are now absolutely drowning in shrill bullshit surrounding the perfectly-predictable consequences of having a cabal of politically-appointed hacks setting the short term price of money (the Fed Funds rate). [Pause for breath...]
They will ALWAYS get it wrong. It's not their fault that they can't intuit the optimal market clearing rte - nobody can. But it IS their fault that they are prepared to try... it shows that either they believe that it is possible and they are capable of doing it (wrong on both counts) or they don't give a shit if it's possible or not, and they are just looking to get paid.
Now I think Bernanke - a devotee of The Lord Poofter's economic 'theories' (where government has all the answers and is a benign aid to us all) - probably does believe that he and a bunch of doddering wankers can nut out the perfect interest rate. But he ought to be aware (he is an economic historian by trade) that The Lord Poofter only invented what became known as Keynesianism, in order to cuddle up to the powerful (but only the men).
Now don't get me wrong - I only call him The Lord Poofter out of spite. Besides, being a bummer doesn't make one a bad economist.
Still, it had to be borne in mind that Keynes had no training in economics: he was given a position in the economics faculty because his Dad was a professor. I'm not kidding. Keynes was actually a reasonable mathematician, but it is a mistake to think that having good technical skills is more than a useful aid. And in economics - as with most things - being an autodidact is fine, but you should not be an advisor to government on the basis of self-taught Economics for Hopeful Nuffnuffs.
The economics in his General Theory is absolute rubbish - but it was immensely popular with politicians, because it basically said that politicians can and should 'deficit spend' during periods of economic weakness, which Keynes (wrongly) attributed to deficient demand. It gave the leeches that inhabit the ruling palaces a difficult-to-refute theoretical framework which justified their rapine.
For that, The Lord Poofter's bones should be dug up, burned, pissed on, made into a paste, and fed to John Howard in a kebab made from the innards of a dead Iraqi child.
Major Market Indices
The broad market - the All Ordinaries (XAO) - rose pretty strongly, all things considered. Today it posted a gain of 50.5 points (1.02%), finishing at 5008.2 points. The index hit an intraday high of 5015 at 3:53 pm, while the low for the day was 4947.7 - set at 10:09 am Sydney time.
Total volume traded on the ASX was 1.27bn units, 10.6% below its 10-day average. The ASX's daily listing of all stocks included 1269 different 3-letter FPO's which traded (i.e., had non-zero trade volume). Of these, 518 issues rose, with volume in rising issues totalling 701.7m units; decliners numbered 463 counters, and between them they traded aggregate declining volume of 404.7m shares.
Of the 496 All Ordinaries components, 245 rose while 175 fell. Volume was tilted in favour of the gainers by a margin of 1.9:1, with 604.73m shares traded in gainers while 317.26m shares traded in the day's losers.
The Index that forms the cash basis for the SPI Futures - the S&P/ASX 200 (XJO) - managed a solid gain, adding 58.4 points (1.19%), closing out the session at 4981.9 points.
| Name | Close | +/-(%) |
|---|---|---|
| All Ordinaries | 5008.20 | 50.50 (1.0%) |
| ASX 20 | 2870.20 | 32.50 (1.1%) |
| ASX 50 | 4920.30 | 52.90 (1.1%) |
| ASX 100 | 4062.40 | 46.60 (1.2%) |
| ASX 200 | 4981.90 | 58.40 (1.2%) |
| ASX 300 | 4969.50 | 57.40 (1.2%) |
| ASX Mid-Cap 50 | 4887.30 | 79.60 (1.7%) |
| ASX Small Ordinaries | 2648.90 | 32.40 (1.2%) |
The "heavy hitters" of the Australian market - the ASX 20 Leaders (XTL) - performed solidly, in moving up 32.5 points (1.15%), closing out the session at 2870.2 points.
Among the 20 big guns, 13 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 175.04m units; 13 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 116.85m shares, while the 7 decliners had volume traded totalling 50.43m units. The major percentage gainers within the index were
- Macquarie Group (MQG), +$3.90 (10.8%) to $40.00 on volume of 2.9 million shares;
- National Australia Bank (NAB), +$1.74 (7.29%) to $25.60 on volume of 10.9 million shares;
- Suncorp-Metway (SUN), +$0.50 (5.26%) to $10.01 on volume of 4.9 million shares;
- Stockland (SGP), +$0.24 (4.21%) to $5.94 on volume of 7.6 million shares; and
- ANZ Banking Group (ANZ), +$0.60 (3.33%) to $18.64 on volume of 11.9 million shares.
On the less salubrious side of the big-cap fence, the following stocks were the worst-performed within the index:
- Wesfarmers (WES), -$0.83 (2.66%) to $30.35 on volume of 2 million shares;
- Rio Tinto (RIO), -$2.74 (2.53%) to $105.50 on volume of 2.5 million shares;
- Foster's Group (FGL), -$0.1 (1.87%) to $5.24 on volume of 7.5 million shares;
- Newcrest Mining (NCM), -$0.14 (0.52%) to $26.70 on volume of 2.4 million shares; and
- Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC), -$0.02 (0.08%) to $24.48 on volume of 5.4 million shares.
The ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO) had a slightly better day than its large-cap counterpart. The Small Ords performed solidly, in moving up 32.4 points (1.24%), closing out the session at 2648.9 points.
Among the stocks that make up the Small Caps index, 111 index components finished to the upside, and of the rest, 77 closed lower for the session.
The 208 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 347.14m units: volume in the 111 gainers totalling 232.5m shares, with trade totalling 90.33m units in the index's 77 declining components. The major percentage gainers within the index were- Admiralty Resources NL (ADY), +$0.03 (34.72%) to $0.10 on volume of 66.8 million shares;
- Compass Resources (CMR), +$0.14 (31.82%) to $0.58 on volume of 1.5 million shares;
- Mineral Deposits (MDL), +$0.20 (30.23%) to $0.84 on volume of 924.5 thousand shares;
- Minara Resources (MRE), +$0.22 (18.7%) to $1.37 on volume of 2.4 million shares; and
- Jabiru Metals (JML), +$0.04 (16.33%) to $0.29 on volume of 5.2 million shares.
In the red-zone of the little-stock index, the following list represents the biggest downers (in terms of percentage decline):
- Rubicon America Trust (RAT), -$0 (10.71%) to $0.03 on volume of 1.6 million shares;
- Sino Gold Mining (SGX), -$0.5 (9.09%) to $5.00 on volume of 890.2 thousand shares;
- Ridley Corporation (RIC), -$0.09 (8.96%) to $0.92 on volume of 395.6 thousand shares;
- Marion Energy (MAE), -$0.05 (7.87%) to $0.59 on volume of 304.5 thousand shares; and
- ING Real Estate Community Living Group (ILF), -$0.03 (7.81%) to $0.30 on volume of 286.7 thousand shares.
Index Changes
| Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XAO | All Ordinaries | 5008.2 | 50.5 | 1.02 | 982.7m |
| XFL | ASX 50 | 4920.3 | 52.9 | 1.09 | 351m |
| XJO | ASX 200 | 4981.9 | 58.4 | 1.19 | 756.5m |
| XKO | ASX 300 | 4969.5 | 57.4 | 1.17 | 906.3m |
| XMD | ASX Mid-Cap 50 | 4887.3 | 79.6 | 1.66 | 219.6m |
| XSO | ASX Small Ordinaries | 2648.9 | 32.4 | 1.24 | 335.7m |
| XTL | ASX 20 | 2870.2 | 32.5 | 1.15 | 167.4m |
| XTO | ASX 100 | 4062.4 | 46.6 | 1.16 | 570.6m |
Market Breadth
| ASX20 | XTO | XJO | XAO | XSO | Market | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advances | 13 | 63 | 133 | 245 | 111 | 518 |
| Declines | 7 | 32 | 58 | 175 | 77 | 463 |
| Advancing Volume | 116.9m | 355.8m | 481.2m | 604.7m | 232.5m | 701.7m |
| Declining Volume | 50.4m | 198.1m | 250.7m | 317.3m | 90.3m | 404.7m |
GICS Industry Indices
Among the 11 industry indices, 9 registered an advance for the session, 2 lost ground - although Consumer Staples (XSJ) was as good as unchanged, losing just 0.02%.
The best performing index was Information Technology (XIJ), which added 19.6 points (3.98%) to 511.5 points. The 2 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 1.8m units; both rose -
- Computershare (CPU), +$0.35 (4.02%) to $9.05 on volume of 1.2 million shares; and
- Iress Market Technology (IRE), +$0.20 (3.62%) to $5.73 on volume of 563 thousand shares.
Second in the index leadership stakes was Utilities (XUJ), which gained 138.2 points (3.04%) to 4678 points. The 10 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 43.38m units; 8 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 22.59m shares, while sole declining stock traded 15.06m units. The major percentage gainers within the index were
- Spark Infrastructure Group (SKI), +$0.16 (10.96%) to $1.62 on volume of 1.2 million shares;
- Duet Group (DUE), +$0.20 (7.87%) to $2.74 on volume of 1.2 million shares;
- Babcock & Brown Infrastructure Group (BBI), +$0.02 (4.76%) to $0.33 on volume of 16.1 million shares;
- Hastings Diversified Utilities Fund (HDF), +$0.12 (4.74%) to $2.65 on volume of 278.6 thousand shares; and
- SP Ausnet (SPN), +$0.04 (4%) to $1.04 on volume of 960 thousand shares.
The bronze medal for today goes to Telecommunications (XTJ), which climbed 40.6 points (2.85%) to 1463.4 points. The 3 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 61.82m units; 2 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 60.13m shares, while sole declining stock traded 1.68m units. The two gainers within the index were
- Telstra Corporation (TLS), +$0.13 (3.11%) to $4.31 on volume of 58.3 million shares; and
- Telecom Corporation Of New Zealand (TEL), +$0.04 (1.72%) to $2.36 on volume of 1.8 million shares.
The worst-performed index for the session was Materials (XMJ), which dipped 68.4 points (0.54%) to 12693.2 points. The 45 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 191.33m units; The 21 decliners had volume traded totalling 105.86m units, and 18 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 76.07m shares, The major percentage decliners within the index were
- Sino Gold Mining (SGX), -$0.5 (9.09%) to $5.00 on volume of 890.2 thousand shares;
- Aquarius Platinum (AQP), -$0.42 (4.9%) to $8.16 on volume of 557.5 thousand shares;
- Paperlinx (PPX), -$0.11 (4.7%) to $2.23 on volume of 1.1 million shares;
- James Hardie Industries N.V. (JHX), -$0.25 (4.32%) to $5.54 on volume of 3.9 million shares; and
- PanAust Ltd (PNA), -$0.02 (3.42%) to $0.57 on volume of 6 million shares.
Just missing out on the wooden spoon was Consumer Staples (XSJ), which had a barely discerniblee fall of 1.5 points (0.02%) to 7199.4 points. The 13 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 29.77m units; The 5 decliners had volume traded totalling 14.23m units, and 7 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 9.68m shares, The major percentage decliners within the index were
- Wesfarmers (WES), -$0.83 (2.66%) to $30.35 on volume of 2 million shares;
- Foster's Group (FGL), -$0.1 (1.87%) to $5.24 on volume of 7.5 million shares;
- Coca-Cola Amatil (CCL), -$0.05 (0.55%) to $9.00 on volume of 1.9 million shares;
- Metcash (MTS), -$0.02 (0.47%) to $4.25 on volume of 1.5 million shares; and
- Lion Nathan (LNN), -$0.02 (0.23%) to $8.68 on volume of 1.3 million shares.
Sector Indices
| Code | GICS Sector | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XIJ | Information Technology | 511.5 | 19.6 | 3.98 | 2m |
| XUJ | Utilities | 4678 | 138.2 | 3.04 | 43m |
| XTJ | Telecommunications | 1463.4 | 40.6 | 2.85 | 62m |
| XXJ | Financials ex Property Trusts | 5165 | 121.2 | 2.4 | 92m |
| XEJ | Energy | 17436.8 | 370.2 | 2.17 | 43m |
| XHJ | Healthcare | 9199 | 146.3 | 1.62 | 16m |
| XPJ | Property Trusts | 1492.3 | 23.3 | 1.59 | 162m |
| XDJ | Consumer Discretionary | 1664.1 | 16.9 | 1.03 | 44m |
| XNJ | Industrials | 4629.4 | 26.7 | 0.58 | 96m |
| XSJ | Consumer Staples | 7199.4 | -1.5 | -0.02 | 30m |
| XMJ | Materials | 12693.2 | -68.4 | -0.54 | 191m |
All Ordinaries Major Movers
All Ords Volume Leaders
| Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADY | Admiralty Resources NL | 0.10 | 0.03 | 34.72 | 66.8m |
| TLS | Telstra Corporation Limited. | 4.31 | 0.13 | 3.11 | 58.3m |
| LGL | Lihir Gold Limited | 2.75 | -0.02 | -0.72 | 28.6m |
| BHP | BHP Billiton Limited | 37.87 | -0.03 | -0.08 | 28.1m |
| OZL | OZ Minerals Limited | 1.77 | 0.06 | 3.52 | 23.7m |
All Ords Percentage Gainers
| Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADY | Admiralty Resources NL | 0.10 | 0.03 | 34.72 | 66.8m |
| BNB | Babcock & Brown Limited | 1.70 | 0.42 | 32.81 | 11.8m |
| CMR | Compass Resources Limited | 0.58 | 0.14 | 31.82 | 1.5m |
| MDL | Mineral Deposits Limited | 0.84 | 0.20 | 30.23 | 924.5k |
| VPG | Valad Property Group | 0.34 | 0.06 | 19.3 | 22.9m |
All Ords Percentage Losers
| Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TMR | Tamaya Resources Limited | 0.02 | 0.00 | -11.11 | 5.8m |
| RAT | Rubicon America Trust | 0.03 | 0.00 | -10.71 | 1.6m |
| SGX | Sino Gold Mining Limited | 5.00 | -0.50 | -9.09 | 890.2k |
| RIC | Ridley Corporation Limited | 0.92 | -0.09 | -8.96 | 395.6k |
| AVX | Avexa Limited | 0.18 | -0.02 | -7.89 | 1.5m |
