Australian Stock Market Report – Midday 3-20-13

MID-SESSION REPORT
12.30pm (AEDT)

The Australian sharemarket is falling for the third straight day, taking the losses for the week to almost 3 per cent. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 0.74 per cent and has slipped below the key 5000.0 point level for the first time this month.

The Cypriot parliament made its decision to vote against the controversial one-off tax on bank deposits overnight. This was a requirement to receive €10 billion worth of assistance funds from lenders.

The miners are the worst performers at lunch, with both BHP Billiton (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RIO) on the receiving end of broker downgrades in the past 24 hours. BHP is down 5.3 per cent this week while RIO has slumped by 7.4 per cent in just three sessions.

Australia's big four banks had a mixed start to the session this morning, however are mostly weaker after 2 hours of trade. National Australia Bank (NAB) is the worst of the majors.

It isn't all bad news however, with department store owner David Jones (DJS) up 3.55 per cent after announcing a $73.5M profit over the previous half. This is despite weaker sales and a challenging retail environment. DJS has had a great 2013 so far, with its share price rising by 29 per cent. Keep in mind that shares in 2011 slumped by 46 per cent while 2012 was an uneventful year for the retailer.

So far in trade, 1.06B shares have been traded, worth $2.17B. 285 stocks are higher, 512 are in the red while 314 are unchanged.

The Australian dollar is remaining strong against the greenback despite losing some ground overnight. The Aussie is the world's fifth most traded currency behind the U.S dollar, the Euro, Japanese Yen and British Pound. It accounts for around 7 per cent of all foreign exchange trades globally.

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