Australian Stock Market Report – Afternoon 7/29/13

AFTERNOON REPORT
(5pm AEST)

Cautious trading today left the Australian market relatively unchanged today with the All Ordinaries closing higher by 0.08 per cent to end at 5027.9pts. Sector performance was mixed as losses in the energy and materials sectors were offset by gains in financial and information technology stocks.

Our market was the only one in the region to close higher due to falls in Asian trade. The worst performer was Japan with the Nikkei down 3.32 per cent as a higher Yen hurt Japanese exports.

The Energy Sector (XEJ) ended 1.15 per cent lower as recent weakness in commodity prices and disappointing Chinese data weighed on investor's minds.

Gains in the big four banks pushed the Financials Sector (XFJ) up by 0.46 per cent with CBA trading at record levels as investors chased higher yields.

Newcrest Mining (NCM) was downgraded by ratings agency Moody's today. Australia's largest gold miner was down 2.1 per cent to $12.15 at the close of trade with a weaker gold price and production margin concerns affecting trade.

Oz Minerals (OZL) also fell today, down by 8 cents or 1.94 per cent to $4.05 after announcing that it will take a hit of up to $240 million, largely due to lower copper and gold prices.

Locally, our reporting season is set to begin with Transurban Group (TCL) and Resmed (RES) scheduled to report later this week. Woolworths (WOW) quarterly sales are due tomorrow.

In economic data, petrol prices have hit a 5 year high. The Australian Institute of Petroleum said that the national average Australian price of unleaded petrol rose by 4.5 cents a litre in the week to July 28. Despite this, CommSec's Craig James predicts good news for motorists over the next 7-10 days after the wholesale oil price fell 3 cents from recent highs and the Singapore crude price fell to 4 week lows in Australian dollar terms.

Today 1.29 billion shares were traded worth $3.04 billion. 453 shares were up, 423 were down and 344 were unchanged.

At 5pm AEST the SFE 200 Futures Index was flat at 5009pts, down 1pt.

Ahead tonight, data on pending home sales is released together with the Midwest manufacturing index and Dallas Fed business index.

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