Australian Stock Market Report – Afternoon November 4, 2014

The Australian sharemarket has ended the session firmer, after trading fairly flat for most of the day. Volumes were light with Victoria celebrating the Melbourne Cup public holiday. The S&P/ASX 200 climbed 13pts or 0.20 per cent to 5,519.

 Woolworths (WOW) shares continued to retreat on the back of yesterday's weak sales results. The retailer slipped 2.75 per cent to $33.30 adding to yesterday's losses.

 The energy sector recovered earlier losses sparked by the fall in oil prices. Woodside Petroleum (WPL) eased by 0.05 per cent to $40.42, while Oil Search (OSH) gained 0.58 percent to $8.68. Overnight, oil prices tumbled to a near two year low after Saudi Arabia unexpectedly cut prices for crude sold to the US.

 Retail stocks were buoyed by today's better than expected retail sales figures. Sales jumped a seasonally adjusted 1.2 per cent in September to $23.63 billion. Annual spending growth rose from 5.2 per cent to 5.7 per cent. Discretionary (non-food) spending lifted by 1.8 per cent in September - the strongest growth in 5.5 years. Myer (MYR) shares jumped 1.87 per cent to $1.91, while Harvey Norman (HVN) gained 0.54 per cent to $3.74.

 The Healthcare sector recovered earlier losses to close up 0.63 per cent. CSL (CSL) gained 0.84 per cent to $79.46, while Sonic Healthcare (SHL) rallied 2.73 per cent to $19.17.

 Aside from the big race, the major event on today's economic calendar was the Reserve Bank Board Meeting. As expected, the central bank kept its cash rate on hold at 2.5 per cent for the 16th consecutive month.

 In other economic news Australia's trade deficit widened by $1,248 million to a deficit of $2,261 million in September to a near two-year high. Exports to China held just shy of $100 billion the year to September and account for almost 36 per cent of our total exports. And exports to the US hit a near 5-year high of $10.55 billion in the year to August.

 The Australia dollar is at 87.22 US cents having lost ground again against the greenback. Ahead tonight, weekly data on US chain store sales is issued along with durable goods orders and international trade. European Services PMI and European Retail Sales will also be released.

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