Australian Stock Market Report – Afternoon 9/30/13

AFTERNOON REPORT
(5pm AEST)

Sellers moved in on the Australian share market today, dragging the index from fresh five year highs reached on Friday. It was the worst one day session the Australian share market has experienced since the 3rd July. However the Australian share market notched up its best quarterly gain since September 2009, rising 9.3 per cent in the three months to September.

Today, concerns US Congress may fail to come up with a budget agreement before tonight's deadline weighed on investor sentiment. Energy stocks were the worst performers with the sector down 2.3 per cent.

Gold miner Newcrest Mining (NCM) bucked the trend in an otherwise negative session for the materials sector. NCM added 2 per cent to $11.70 while the overall mining sector was down 1.6 per cent.

In economic data today, the official Chinese Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) was released, missing expectations. The final reading came in at 50.2, while the market was looking for a figure of 51.2. However the Shanghai Composite rose 0.6 per cent. It will be closed tomorrow until Friday for Golden Week.

Locally, the TD Securities/Melbourne Institute monthly inflation gauge rose by 0.2 per cent in September to stand 2.1 per cent higher than a year ago. The gauge shows inflation is not an issue here in Australia and as such the RBA is likely to leave rates on hold tomorrow at 2.5 per cent.

On the market overall, a total of 1.7 billion shares changed hands, worth $4 billion. 325 were up, 603 were down and 342 were unchanged.

At 5pm AEST the SFE 200 Futures Index was at 5223, down 86 points.

The Dow Futures Index is pointing to another negative start for Wall Street, it is trading down 122 points or 0.8 per cent.

Ahead tonight, the Chicago purchasing manager's index is released in the US.

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