Australian Stock Market Report – Afternoon October 15, 2014

An office worker is reflected in the window of the Australian Securities Exchange building displaying the ASX50 curve for Wednesday in central Sydney August 7, 2013. Australian shares skidded 1.3 percent on Wednesday, its biggest fall in five weeks, hit by sharp falls in miners and financials as regional markets tracked a soft Wall Street lead amid uncertainty about the U.S. Federal Reserve's stimulus programme REUTERS/Daniel Munoz (AUSTRALIA - Tags: BUSINESS)

A second day of gains for the ASX 200

 Having started Wednesday on the front foot, trading higher from the opening bell Australian shares consolidated early gains by finishing off the best levels of the day. The ASX 200 finished the session ahead by 38 points or 0.73%. At the best levels of the day the index was ahead by 46 points. The lows of the Wednesday were seen in opening trade when the market was down by 1 point.

 Consumer related stocks were supported by buyers although consumer confidence numbers offered little encouragement. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment recorded a small rise over October rising by a small 0.9% in October. Confidence remains entrenched in negative territory (the number of pessimists outweigh the number of optimists) and stands 12.5% lower than a year ago. Sentiment is being weighed down by a softer Aussie dollar, falling share market and concerns over the economic outlook. The main positive in the figures is that job security fears are continuing to ease. Most retail names were higher; Harvey Norman (HVN) shares closed up 0.9% and JB Hi Fi (JBH) rose 1.1 %, although Myer (MYR) eased by 0.5%

 Mining stocks were a mixed bag on Wednesday following solid improvements in recent sessions. Rio Tinto (RIO) shares edged higher following quarterly production numbers which described a record 78 million tonnes of iron ore being shipped during the September quarter. Additionally RIO said that it had reached record production of 76.8 million tonnes over the same period. The group maintained guidance for iron ore shipments of 300 million tonnes in 2014 and production of 295 million tonnes. RIO shares ended the session with an improvement of 0.4 %

 Building Approvals figures provided some encouraging news for the broader economic picture domestically. The total value of building work done rose by 0.4% in QII, to be up 6%pa. Significantly, the value of work done on new residential building lifted by a more solid 1.8% to be running at 10.9% in annualised terms. Names in the building materials space were generally higher; Boral (BLD) was up 2.2% , James Hardie (JHX) was ahead by 0.4 % and Adelaide Brighton Cement (ABC) rose 0.6%.

 Volumes over the course of the session improved over the afternoon with 1.63 billion shares having changed hands valued at $4.88 billion. 439 stocks were up, 487 were down and 369 were unchanged.

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