Australian Stocks: What Happened Today?

ASX Top Gainers & Losers plus Market Snapshot – 17 April 2014

Extremely buoyant markets globally are providing a nice run into the Easter long weekend, despite volume being on the low side with Yellen providing an accommodating stance about the future of the US economy.

What are traders talking about today? 

• S&P/ASX200 gained 33.9 points or + 0.62% on volume of $3.3 billion, closing ­­at 5454.2.
• It appears Chinese money is continuing to buy up key real estate here in Australia with talk of a Chinese developer in discussions with Harry Triguboff about purchasing his Meriton Apartment’s.
• Reporting season continues to move forward in the US with big names like Google and Bank of America issuing results.
• Gold seems to be hovering and remaining steady around the current US$1,300 per ounce mark, following the recent significant selloff.
• Brent Crude Oil shot up to the top of resistance and retraced lower, currently sitting around US$109.40 per barrel leading into the long weekend.
• The Nikkei 225 index has bounced back, attempting to close above resistance at 14450 but momentum is definitely being carried to the downside with many looking to sell the current strength on any rally.
• The Aussie Dollar continues to remain firm at current levels, sitting at 0.9365 as I write on Thursday evening, forming a nice base with definitely an opportunity to push higher from here.

Economic news

• Janet Yellen provides some guidance and reiteration overnight, discussing that they will continue to be very accommodating towards a low interest rate environment for the foreseeable future, providing the market with plenty of interest to buy up some stocks.
• New car sales were reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showing a fall of 0.3 per cent in March.
• The National Australian Bank (NAB:ASX) business survey, looking at current business condition, came out, suggesting a slight lift in business conditions but business confidence has fallen.

Australian sector watch

Looking over the charts

• Positive markets both in Europe and the US provided the necessary springboard to the Aussie 200 index today, pushing our index up ever closer to recent highs.
• Momentum continues to favour the upside, despite the low volume around Easter trading and as we’ve been discussing, a potential new high is well and truly on the cards.
• Recent highs on the Aussie 200 cash price sit at 5503 and we’ll be monitoring for a close above those levels over the next period of time but it must be said a bearish divergence signal is definitely developing with stochastics well and truly below the overbought zone.
• Today’s intraday chart showed quite a bit of strength, rallying up nearly 40 points on the open and then after a 20 point pull back, rallied again into the close.

ASX top 200 stock analysis

23% of stocks are showing oversold levels, 18% are showing overbought levels and 57% of stocks are currently above their long term moving average as of close of trading today. View the image below to better understand overbought and oversold levels.

S&P/ASX 200 Gainers and Losers

Top 5 gainers:

• CGF        CHALLENGER +4.19%
• SXL         SOUTHERN CROSS MEDIA GROUP +4.17%
• PBG       PACIFIC BRANDS +3.88%
• SXY         SENEX ENERGY +3.50%
• CRZ        CARSALES.COM +3.07%

Top 5 Losers:

• SKE         SKILLED GROUP -2.14%
• SUL        SUPER RETAIL GROUP -1.95%
• CVO       COVER-MORE GROUP -1.89%
• TEN        TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS -1.89%
• RSG        RESOLUTE MINING -1.61%